SF Surfers Want You To ‘Hold On To Your Butts’!

The Surfrider Foundation San Francisco Chapter, part of one of our favorite nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of clean water and healthy beaches, along with NOAA launched a ‘Love SF – Hold On To Your Butt’ campaign to prevent cigarette litter in SF and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Surfrider volunteer Pamela Adams, cleaning up your butts.

Surfrider has diverted more than 800 pounds of cigarette waste from San Francisco waterways, beaches and city streets, let’s help them out! Cigarette butts are the number one most littered item in San Francisco and around the world. These toxic items, which are made from plastic, are easily swept from the streets and sidewalks into the sewer system or directly into the ocean, where they pollute the marine environment.

SF surfrider volunteer ‘Sunshine Swinford’ bought a clear plastic butt from https://www.mannequinmadness.com/ and cut a hole in the top – what better to hold plastic butts than a big plastic butt!  Butt, if you want a pocket ashtray see bellow : )

San Francisco smokers can now show their love for San Francisco and prevent cigarette litter by using pocket ashtrays and cigarette receptacles as a result of this innovative campaign.   That way you don’t have to leave your toxic butts on the beach or in the street, you can put them in these handy receptacles that don’t stink up your pocket either.

These handy little butt pouches are now being distributed all over the city at local businesses for free!

Most SF smokers have a ‘leave no trace’ mentality, and this program just makes it easier, check out this buttcans and free pocket ashtrays map to see where you can get a free butt holder.

Are you a San Francisco business or organization? Request your free pocket ashtrays today! Help your business stand out and keep your neighborhood free of cigarette litter. Get up to 500 free pocket ashtrays to give to smokers, along with promotional signage.  Sign up here. 

Via Shelly Ericksen of  Surfrider Foundation SF Chapter : 

The campaign builds on the Surfrider Foundation San Francisco Chapter’s current Hold On To Your Butt program, which aims to prevent cigarette litter through education and by providing safe places, such as cigarette receptacles, for smokers to dispose of cigarette butts. Since implementing the Hold On To Your Butt program in 2015, the Surfrider Foundation San Francisco Chapter has successfully diverted more than 800 pounds of cigarette waste from waterways, beaches and city streets.

As a result of a highly competitive grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Program to further these efforts, the Surfrider Foundation San Francisco Chapter is installing 175 new cigarette receptacles, in addition to producing a public service announcement and infographic through the ‘Love SF – Hold On To Your Butt’ campaign. The chapter is also distributing 12,000 ‘pocket ashtrays,’ which are reusable, portable, fireproof pouches or containers, to keep cigarette butts off the street and out of the ocean and bay.

People who smoke can now deposit their cigarette butts in one of the more than 250 cigarette receptacles or ‘buttcans’ throughout the city and along the coast. They can also pick up a free pocket ashtray from any participating business. The Surfrider Foundation San Francisco Chapter’s Buttcans & Free Pocket Ashtray Map makes it easy to locate these pollution prevention tools.

“The NOAA Marine Debris Program is pleased to support the great work of the ‘Love SF – Hold On To Your Butt’ campaign,” said the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s California Regional Coordinator, Christy Kehoe. “Cigarette butts are one of the most common types of trash that are found during marine debris cleanups in California. Preventing them from entering the environment in the first place will help to protect the animals and plants of the Bay, as well as our ability to enjoy the scenic areas we love without unsightly litter.” The project also contributes to implementation of the California Ocean Litter Prevention Strategy, a holistic and collaborative strategy for addressing ocean litter in California