CIGARETTE BUTTS IN SANTA BARBARA
Prepared by UCSB students:
Ashley Bagley
Daniela Salazar
DJ Wetmore
Abigail Wolff
As a course project for
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 193SP: Group Research Project Seminar
Instructor:
Professor Simone Pulver, Ph.D.
June 2012
Executive summary
UC Santa Barbara’s Environmental Studies 193SP Butts Team was tasked, by the City of
Santa Barbara Creeks Division, to determine the best method for reduction of cigarette litter in local waterways and the ocean. Through primary and secondary research, as well as consultation with experts in survey research and marketing, our team gathered the knowledge necessary to compose and distribute a survey designed to empirically evaluate smokers’ habits and motivations as they related to littering cigarette butts. Survey sampling took place in four predetermined locations, selected with the intent of reaching a demographic representative of the larger Santa Barbara population. 76 smokers fully completed surveys but due to the convenience- based sampling method, certain characteristics of the surveyed demographic were skewed from larger population’s demographic. Using the information from our research, and in-depth analysis from the survey data, our team developed four potential solutions to reduce cigarette litter:
Law Enforcement
Improved Infrastructure
Educational Outreach
Incentivized Collection.
The first three strategies alter behavior of smokers by encouraging proper disposal, while the fourth reduces the amount of litter that makes its way from streets, beaches and parks into local waterways or the ocean. This report discusses our research process and recommended strategies in detail, including the pros and cons, and the best methods for implementation.
Table of Contents
I) Introduction……………………………………………………………1
II) Methodology………………………………………………………….2
i) Survey Construction…………………………………………….5
ii) Data Collection…………………………………………………6
iii) Sample Versus Target Population……………………………..6
III) Recommendations……………………………………………………9
i) Law enforcement………………………………………………10
ii) Improved Infrastructure………………………………………12
iii) Educational Campaign ………………………………………15
iv) Incentivized Collection………………………………………17
v) Social Media: Facebook………………………………………18
IV) Conclusion………………………………………………………….20
V) Graph Appendix……………………………………………………..22
VI) Best Practice Appendix…………………………………………….28
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Introduction
Santa Barbara prides itself on its “green” image and has a rich history of
environmentalism. Unfortunately, the city is still plagued with the problem of cigarette
butt litter - particularly in aquatic ecosystems. These carcinogenic bits of non-
biodegradable cellulose acetate are the number-one item removed from local beaches
during coastal cleanups. They are toxic to fish and wildlife and pose risks to human
health as well as animals. For these reason, Santa Barbara Creeks Division came to UC
Santa Barbara’s ES 193SP Butts Team for assistance in accomplishing the following
goal: to most effectively reduce the amount of cigarette litter in Santa Barbara’s natural
environment. To determine the best strategies and techniques to effectively and
efficiently solve this problem, our team used extensive preliminary research and
professional consultation, coupled with interviews and participant observation, to develop
a survey that could be used to evaluate the habits and motivations of cigarette smokers.
Drawing from this knowledge we composed a survey designed to answer three key
questions posed by Liz Smith, Outreach Coordinator for the City of Santa Barbara Creeks
Division:
1. Why do smokers toss their cigarette butts on the ground?
2. How much effort smokers are willing to put into proper butt disposal?
3. What approaches would best encourage behavior change?
Over the course of 9 weeks the 193SP Butts team carefully crafted, strategically distributed, and thoroughly analyzed 76 surveys. Our methods, findings, and subsequent recommendations for the Santa Barbara Creeks Division are discussed below.
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Methodology
At the onset of this study our team was composed of novice researchers. To avoid
any issues arising from inexperience, we were required to examine several case studies
and numerous articles discussing ethical research practices. All researchers also
successfully completed the University of California’s Human Training Module, which
certified team members to perform field studies on human subjects. In addition, we
received extensive guidance from senior researcher Dr. Simone Pulver, with additional
professional consultation provided by Celia Alario, Marketing Consultant and Media
Strategist and Andrea Joseph, Project Coordinator of the UCSB Social Science Survey
Center. Simultaneous to this preliminary education, our team gathered background
research that examined the following areas:
Santa Barbara’s regional demographics
Existing smoking infrastructure in Santa Barbara
Best practices of other municipalities for cigarette butt litter reduction
The techniques and efficacy of messaging through social media
This guidance and information helped our team to better design a survey and analyze data, and provided insight on potential litter reduction strategies. To develop a survey that best addressed the questions posed by the Santa Barbara Creeks Division, we conducted 8 unstructured interviews and 9 hours of participant observation. Unstructured interviews consisted of approximately 30 minutes of Q and A discussion with regular smokers. The purpose was to gain insight into smokers’ habits, assess their general attitude toward littering cigarette butts, and determine the obstacles to proper disposal. Questions asked included “Why do smokers leave their butts on the ground?”, “Where do you usually smoke?”, “How often do
3 you properly dispose of cigarette butts?”, “What practices or implementations might help you alter your behavior?” By interviewing informally, and allowing the conversation to develop naturally, we were able to elicit candid responses. Interviewee feedback assisted our team to tailor question presentation in a way that was least likely to offend or embarrass smokers, helping to achieve more credible survey results. These interviews tipped us off to typical smoker behavior, perspectives and concerns. From interview responses we were able to identify the pertinent questions for surveying the smoker population. We were also able to discover areas in which smoking is most prevalent, allowing us to target and survey smokers within these problem areas.
Interestingly, every person interviewed admitted to having thrown cigarettes onto
the ground on more than one occasion. Those interviewed believed that cigarette butts
were disposed improperly primarily due to apathy and lack of convenient receptacles.
Correspondingly, fines and increased disposal infrastructure were considered the most
effective vehicles for change. Interviewees also a shared a feeling of guilt that discouraged
littering in pristine or cleanly areas. Many assumed others collected their cigarette butts,
such as street sweepers and business owners. Others believed their cigarette butts were
washed into the storm drains and treated with sewage water. Interviewees were usually
unaware of the materials used for cigarette filters, or how these filters affect the
environment and human health. Some thought cigarette butts were too small to have an
impact, while others knew they were harmful but could not articulate why. Everyone
interviewed felt that Santa Barbara’s cigarette disposal infrastructure was insufficient, and
improvements would enable increased proper disposal.
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These discussion findings yielded a couple of discrepancies when contrasted with the survey data. Most notably, even those who considered themselves very environmentally conscious and were aware of the negative impacts of cigarette butts, acknowledged that they never managed to properly dispose of 100% of their butts.
Interviewees were in general agreement that no smoker has disposed properly in every instance of cigarette butt disposal. Secondly, the surveys purported that a far higher percentage of smokers managed to get their butts into the trash all or nearly all of the time, establishing some concern as to the level of embellishment in responses. It was also clear that when asked about one’s personal habits, people provided excuses and obstacles justifying their faults, but were often quick to insist laziness or apathy as the root of other smokers’ littering.
Participant observation provided unbiased insight into smoker behavior. These observations were conducted in one and two-hour segments evenly divided between the following four locations:
Cafe Zoma (Lower State St)
SB Transit Center
Stearn’s Wharf
UCSB Library
These areas were chosen because they are highly trafficked problem areas, and each contained populations of varied demographics. Similarly to the unstructured interviews, these observations painted a rather different image of disposal behavior when contrasted with survey responses. An interesting finding was that 58 of 60 people made a clear effort to extinguish their cigarette before tossing it, implying (later confirmed by our
5 survey results) that there is a subconscious habit supporting fire prevention ingrained in nearly all smokers. Over 85% of people did not dispose properly of their cigarette butts, throwing them on the ground, often when while standing right next to obvious trash cans.
We noticed some confusion over disposal as well, especially on State Street, where ashtrays were missing; one individual even used the recycling bin as an alternative.
Survey Construction
Before we began constructing our surveys, we consulted with Andrea Joseph,
Program Coordinator for UCSB Social Science Survey Center to learn more about
effective sampling. Andrea informed us on the different types of samples and survey
methods. A stratified survey from a representative sample, which models the
characteristics of the larger population, would have been ideal for acquiring the most
accurate data. However, due to a lack of information on our targeted population and
limited resources we were required to survey somewhat less randomly - deciding that
convenience and quota sampling would be our only viable option. By incorporating
Andrea’s advice with had been learned from unstructured interviewing we began
constructing survey questions that we believed would generate the most insight into
smokers’ habits on cigarette disposal. Each of the four researchers on the Butts Team
prepared at least ten questions. In a group conference moderated by Dr. Simone Pulver,
questions were discussed and prioritized, narrowing down the survey to around around
twenty-one questions. This survey draft was submitted to the City of Santa Barbara
Creeks Division for feedback and approval. Using their commentary we were able to
complete an updated and improved final draft with a total of twenty-one questions
inquiring as to where people smoke, how many of their butts end up on the ground, if
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they would use a pocket ashtray, their behavioral motivations, social media habits, and
personal demographic profile. In order to comply with UCSB’s Human Subjects Training
Module we introduced our survey by describing our affiliation with the university, and
the survey’s purpose, as well as the fact that any information gathered was confidential
and anonymous.
Data Collection
We successfully collected 76 completed surveys from the Santa Barbara smoker
population. While out in the field, many people denied the survey because they either did
not have time or were not interested. Surveys were conducted in teams of two, at six different locations, for approximately two hours in each location. At the UCSB Library
24 student and faculty smokers were surveyed. At SBCC 21 smokers -primarily students- were surveyed. At Stearn’s Wharf 7 smokers, the majority of whom were tourists, were surveyed. At the Santa Barbara Transit Center 6 smokers of varying demographics were surveyed. At Camino Real Marketplace in Goleta, 4 middle-aged smokers were surveyed.
Finally, at Paseo Nuevo Mall on State Street, 14 smokers of different ages, socio- economic backgrounds and origins (several tourists) were surveyed.
Sample versus Target Population
Although we intended to use convenience sampling and quota sampling to survey smokers that were available in problem areas, and matched the demographic. This proved to be more challenging than expected and our results are based exclusively on convenience sampling, due to limited timing and resources. It was simply not feasible to perform quota sampling, so the final sample pool differed from the Santa Barbara and smoker demographics (based on the U.S. Census data). The data shows an oversampling
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of males, who make up 70% of the sample, but males are more likely to smoke than
females, with males comprising 55% of the smoking population (figure 1). We also
oversampled low-income smokers, with 29% of the sample earning less than
$20,000/year, while the Santa Barbara demographic is concentrated in the $50,000-
$74,999/year range. However, 61.2% of smokers are below the poverty level, so
oversampling low-income smokers is actually beneficial (figure 2).
To gauge the personal disposal habits of smokers, survey takers were asked how many of their cigarette butts, per pack of 20, end up on the ground. Smokers surveyed could choose between 0, 1-5, 6-10, 11-15 and 16-20 cigarettes that are tossed to the ground. For the purposes of this paper, we will classify these categories as Purists (0), Apologetics (1-5),
Moderates (6-10), Litterbugs (11-15) and Extremists (16-20). 17% of the smokers surveyed identified as Purists, 42% as Apologetics, 12% as Moderates, 17% as Litterbugs and 9% as Extremists (figure 3). However, our unstructured interviews and participant observation data leads us to believe that the sample may have underestimated their improper disposal. For example, every person interviewed admitted to having tossed cigarettes on the ground at some point, and throughout nine hours of participant observation, only 15% of smokers did not throw butts on the ground. In addressing the key groups, it is clear that the target audience for all campaign strategies lies in the Apologetic,
Moderate and Litterbug groups, since they contribute to cigarette butt litter, but also have the potential to change their ways. Clearly, Purists do not contribute to the problem so they do not need to be addressed. Extremists are insistent on improper disposal, and are therefore unlikely to change their ways. For this reason, the only strategy targeted toward
Extremists is that of law enforcement.
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17 out of the 76 people surveyed were not from the Santa Barbara area. With Santa
Barbara being a popular tourist location, a number of smokers surveyed were from other cities in California, such as Upland, Los Angeles, Ventura, Eagle Mountain, Oakland,
Fresno, and Oxnard. We surveyed 4 people from other states as well, such as Las Vegas,
Nevada and New Jersey. In addition, we surveyed people from other countries, such as
France, Belgium, and Switzerland. Within the 17 tourists, we categorized them into each of our five groups based off of their responses; 6 as Purists, 4 as Apologetics, 4 as Moderates,
0 as Litterbugs, and 2 as Extremists. In doing so, we discovered that the majority of the tourists who took our survey were not significantly contributing to Santa Barbara’s cigarette butt litter. There was also no correlation between locations as to who were the
Extremists and who were the Purists. One participant from Belgium claimed to be in the
Purists group, where one participant from Switzerland would be classified as a Moderate.
With a good proportion of the tourists being Purists, Apologetics, and Moderates we are able to target and influence them more easily than the Extremists by talking to local hotels about promoting cigarette butts as litter. Another option that applies to not only tourists but to locals as well would be to get in touch with local businesses or restaurants and make sure that if they have a designated smoking zone that ashtrays are provided with clear labeling. By connecting with these local businesses we have a better chance of making the out-of-town smokers be ones who do not contribute to Santa Barbara’s cigarette butt litter.
Some potential motivations that might encourage a behavioral change in the
Apologetics, Moderates, and Litterbugs that they responded to most strongly were more ashtrays (65%), protecting the environment (59%), keeping Santa Barbara beautiful (51%), avoid starting fires (32%), and obvious labels and signs marking ashtrays (32%) - people
9 surveyed were allowed to check more than one box, which accounts for why the percentages are over 100%. In addition, we found that certain slogans or catch-phrases appeal to certain categories of smokers (figure 14):
Apologetics: “The Earth is not your ashtray, keep Santa Barbara beautiful!”
Moderates: “ The Earth is not your ashtray, keep Santa Barbara beautiful!”
“Cigarette butts are toxic; save fish and wildlife.”
Litterbugs: “Fines are a pain in the butt, so pick up yours!” “The Earth is not your
ashtray, keep Santa Barbara beautiful!” “Cigarette butts are toxic; save fish and
wildlife.”
Extremists: “Fines are a pain in the butt, so pick up yours!”
With all of the cigarette smokers categorized into distinguished groups and
specific motivations targeted specifically towards each group, we were able to come up
with recommendations that might encourage a behavioral change in the Santa Barbara
area with tourists in mind as well.
Recommendations
As stated above, our goal is to reduce the amount of cigarette butt litter in the
Santa Barbara environment. There are two manners in which to go about doing so:
1. Change smoker behavior to reduce the number of cigarette butts thrown on the
ground
2. Mitigate existing cigarette butt litter by removing them from the environment.
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In the following recommendations, we propose four strategies for reducing the amount of
cigarette butt litter in the Santa Barbara environment. The first three strategies, law
enforcement, infrastructure improvement and educational campaigning address behavioral change among smokers, encouraging the reduction of cigarette butts that enter
the environment. The fourth strategy, incentivized cigarette butt collection addresses the
mitigation of cigarette butt litter that has already entered the environment. Each of these
strategies can use social media, specifically Facebook advertisements, to promote the
widespread adoption of cigarette butt litter mitigation efforts.
Law Enforcement
One catch-all strategy that would serve to target all groups within the smoker
population, is that of law enforcement, issuing warnings and citations for litter law
offenders. As it currently stands, littering cigarette butts is unlawful activity, but the law
is rarely enforced. According to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department, “It is
unlawful to litter or cause to be littered in or upon any public or private property. Any
person, firm, or corporation violating this section is guilty of an infraction” and “A
person convicted of this violation shall be punished by a mandatory fine of not less than
$100 nor more than $1,000 upon a first conviction.” Using the laws already in place to
encourage proper cigarette disposal would be beneficial for the law enforcement officers,
who would generate revenue by citing offenders. By enforcing littering laws we can
target the entire smoker population, including Apologetics, Moderates, Litterbugs, and
especially Extremists. This would be the only strategy for targeting Extremists, who are
unlikely to respond to more social and educational methods, for they are the most set in
their ways. 20% of Extremists said that a fine would encourage them to properly dispose
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of their cigarette butts (figure 15). In addition 70% of the Extremists said that they
‘never’ look for an ashtray when nearing the end of their cigarette. This shows that we
cannot influence the Extremists to properly dispose of cigarette butts through awareness
or better infrastructure, therefore a fine would work best for this group.
In order to launch a successful law enforcement campaign, the Creeks Division or
Santa Barbara law enforcement/governing bodies, must provide sufficient advertisement
of the campaign to boost enforcement. As a model, we refer to the National “Click it or
Ticket” campaign, which has made drivers aware of the consequences of driving without
a seatbelt, before issuing citations for the offense. The campaign has been successful due
to its proper advertisement and message placement along major freeways and other
problem areas. Similarly, an anti-cigarette litter campaign would raise awareness about
the fact that cigarettes are litter, and that littering will be fined. A possible message to
encourage proper disposal and educate people about the fine could be: “Fines are a pain
in the butt, so pick up yours!” followed by a cigarette butt graphic for clarification. A
more straightforward alternative may read, “Cigarette butts are litter. Litter fine: $100-
$1000.” These messages are crucial in preventing severe backlash from disgruntled
citizens that do not understand the gravity of the cigarette litter accumulation in Santa
Barbara. Educated citizens will accept the laws, hopefully making proper disposal a
habit, to avoid fines, achieving behavioral change, and developing a new social norm for
cigarette disposal.
The law enforcement program will obviously require the collaboration of Santa
Barbara law enforcement officials, and proper message dissemination to promote awareness. The Creeks Division should encourage law enforcement officers to promote the
12 campaign, and collaborate for proper campaign advertisement, while avoiding public perceptions as the sole proponents of litter citations. The Creeks Division does not want to be the face of a law enforcement campaign, for doing so would spread negative public perceptions of the Creeks Division, rendering other campaigns useless. Nevertheless, it is still necessary to inform and educate people before issuing citations. Effective channels for message dispersal include newspaper articles, press releases, public service announcements on the radio, television and Youtube, as well as signage in problem areas, including parks, beaches, freeways, roads and city streets. Since 35% of smokers surveyed (figure 7) listed that they primarily dispose improperly of cigarette butts when driving, using road signs similar to those of the “Click it or Ticket” campaign will target this significant audience. In addition, radio station announcements will remind these drivers to refrain from tossing butts out the window. The Santa Barbara Police Department will need to get behind press releases and other advertisements, officially endorsing the message of litter law enforcement, to legitimize the campaign to doubtful citizens. In reality, very few citations would need to be issued to make this campaign effective. Once citations are issued, word of increased law enforcement will spread quickly among the smoker community, as news stations and social media networks alike will carry news of law offenders cited for littering cigarette butts. The power of social networks to spread awareness is quite immense, so the small proportion of litterers cited will alert fellow citizens of the consequences of improper cigarette disposal, promoting a culture of proper disposal habits.
Improved Infrastructure
Another strategy for encouraging proper cigarette disposal is the improvement of
smoking infrastructure throughout Santa Barbara. In conducting background research on
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cigarette infrastructure, we noticed a severe deficiency in disposal sites throughout Santa
Barbara. On State Street, ashtrays have been removed entirely (we suspect theft), and
other problem areas were lacking ashtrays as well, such as beaches, parks, the MTD
Transit Center, Isla Vista, and more. 64% of smokers surveyed listed the absence of an
ashtray or trashcan as a primary reason for not disposing properly of cigarette butts
(figure 7), and 65% report that more ashtrays would motivate them to dispose properly of
their butts (figure 16). Ashtrays seem to be indispensable disposal sites, for our
participant observation led us to the conclusion that smokers avoid the use of trashcans
for cigarette butt disposal. 54% of smokers surveyed report that cigarette butts are rarely
dispensed into trashcans because it may cause a fire to do so, and 21% report that it is
because trashcans are “gross” (figure 4). Also, 55% of smokers surveyed refuse to use a
pocket ashtray (figure 11), so communal infrastructure is necessary. Improving cigarette
infrastructure entails increased prevalence of ashtrays, standardization of those ashtrays
for recognizability, and labeling to promote the utilization of the new infrastructure. This
strategy also provides an opportunity for creative aesthetics, community involvement,
campaign publicity and a kick-off event.
Infrastructure improvement serves to target Apologetics, Moderates and Litterbugs, for data shows that they will benefit from improved infrastructure, while Extremists will not. Figure 8 shows that more than half of smokers surveyed ‘always’ look for an ashtray when nearing the end of their cigarette. Even though 70% of Extremist said that they never look for an ashtray, 45% of the Apologetics said that they ‘always’ look for an ashtray and
50% of the rest of Apologetics reported that they look for an ashtray ‘more than half of the time’. 10% of Moderates ‘always’ look for an ashtray, and 25% of them look ‘more than
14 half of the time’. Even though 30% of the Litterbugs look for an ashtray ‘less than half of the time,’ they too will benefit from improved infrastructure (Figure 9), since better labeling may cause them to look out for ashtrays more frequently.
Infrastructure improvements should be coupled with messages and/or graphics that encourage proper cigarette disposal, for 32% of smokers surveyed reported that better labels on ashtrays would motivate proper disposal (figure 16). In the survey, we provided a list of potential messages that could encourage proper disposal of cigarette butts. The two most popular selections were, “Be kind to the earth, please use an ashtray” (55%) and
“Keep Santa Barbara beautiful, please use an ashtray” (49%) (figure 14). Synthesizing these two messages would be best option for on-site visual reminders that inspire proper disposal. The message “The Earth is NOT your ashtray! Keep Santa Barbara beautiful” will target the majority audience that took to the previously discussed messages, and it will especially target the Apologetics. 45% of the Apologetics preferred the message “The
Earth is not your ashtray” and 50% of them preferred “Keep Santa Barbara beautiful.” Standardizing the message and graphics applied to new ashtrays throughout the city is crucial, because recognizability is key. Once the message and/or graphics are ubiquitous and identifiable, smokers will respond to them as visual reminders and effortless ashtray identifiers. This may increase smokers’ tendencies to look for ashtrays before disposing of cigarette butts, achieving the widespread utilization of smoking infrastructure.
To spread the message of improved infrastructure, we recommend signage, artful ashtray designs and a kick-off event for introducing infrastructure improvements. As stated above, labeling ashtrays with a proper disposal message is crucial for the sake of
15 awareness, recognizability and recollection. Messages should be directly on ashtrays to achieve proper utilization. Furthermore, the ashtrays themselves should be enticing, recognizable and aesthetically pleasing. We recommend using artful ashtrays, such as sculptures, painted patterns or other creative designs to make the ashtrays stand out to smokers, encouraging usage. Even simple, but attractive designs will be effective, as long as they are completely standardized throughout the Santa Barbara area. This strategy may entail community involvement, for local artists, youth groups, schools and volunteers would enjoy the opportunity to get involved with litter mitigation while beautifying Santa
Barbara. Involving the youth of Santa Barbara also opens the opportunity for the Creeks
Division to promote environmental education, preventing future cigarette butt litter.
Whatever the infrastructural improvements may entail, a kick-off event, such as a cigarette butt art-fair or ashtray design contest, will serve to celebrate the new infrastructural improvements, exposing the campaign, publicizing improvements, and generating an air of excitement around proper cigarette butt disposal. Hopefully, a fun event such as this, which involves the community, will inspire citizens to value proper cigarette butt disposal, enabling a behavioral shift in smoker habits.
Educational Campaign
Education plays an important role in changing people’s behaviors, therefore an educational campaign would be favorable in trying to reduce the amount of cigarette litter in Santa Barbara. By alerting the public to the negative environmental and human health impacts of cigarette butt litter, the City of Santa Barbara Creeks Division would be able to encourage behavior change in Apologetics, Moderates, and Litterbugs, due to the fact that these three categories of smokers are the most impressionable (not set in their ways). This
16 campaign targets smokers and nonsmokers alike, making them aware of the detrimental effects cigarette butt litter can have on human and animal health as well as the environment. When conducting our participant observation, we noticed that the seldom few who did dispose of their cigarette butts were confused as to which bin they belonged in; trash or recycling. We were surprised to discover that some smokers were unaware of the fact that you cannot recycle cigarette butts in a normal recycling bin. Only 17% of smokers surveyed knew that cigarette filters were made of plastic, showing gaps in crucial knowledge pertaining to cigarette waste. This demonstrates the importance of informing the public on the contents of filters, to dispose of them properly so they do not end up the natural environment or in the wrong disposal site. This could be done through a week-long intensive educational campaign providing free literature on cigarette butt litter, and its effects, targeting youth, nonsmokers, and smokers alike. In this manner, the campaign may reach all people, and perhaps influence the next generation to make wise decisions that would help keep Santa Barbara beautiful.
In our survey, when asked which messages would inspire proper disposal of cigarette butts, 40% of smokers reported that the message “save fish and wildlife” and 38% of smokers marked “cigarette butts are toxic”. Furthermore, 75% of smokers surveyed believe that cigarette butts thrown to the ground end up in the ocean, which supports the idea that “saving fish and wildlife” plays well into their beliefs. With an educational campaign, we propose a slogan combining both messages, such as “Cigarette butts are toxic; save fish and wildlife,” to get our targeted audience’s attention. Many people care about their health and the environment, and with a slogan incorporating both messages; we can address both interests at once. People are sympathetic to animals being affected by
17 humans’ actions and would be more likely to change their behaviors if they believed they were causing harm to fish and wildlife.
In addition, this type of outreach would allow for partnerships with like-minded organizations, in order to help with campaign promotions. With that in mind, 51% of the smokers surveyed knew of Surfrider Foundation, where only 24% knew about the Creeks
Division (figure 19). If the City of Santa Barbara Creeks Division were to pair up with another organization, they would have access to more resources, volunteers and social networking leverage, enabling them to host promotional events, pursue grants and coordinate initiatives. This type of partnership could allow for the usage of Facebook in order to promote educational events that would call upon the community as whole. An educational campaign would give the Creeks Division power in numbers, which would further their quest for behavioral change among cigarette smokers. Even though this may not resonate with the Extremists, knowledge is always powerful and may be able to change their behaviors over time.
Incentivized Collection
To address the mitigation plan for reducing existing cigarette butt litter, we propose an incentivized pickup program. This initiative would encourage people to collect a certain number or weight of cigarette butts, to be turned in for a cash reward. This type of program would mainly address the homeless, low income, and student smokers, as an incentive to either collect their own butts or to pick up other people’s butts as a means of receiving extra money while trying to maintain Santa Barbara’s natural environment. This type of program would sell itself and would not require much advertisement once the targeted audience was aware of it. One program that has proven to be successful is the California
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Refund Value, which is the amount recycling centers pay to consumers in exchange for empty bottles and cans. We have witnessed first hand how effective the California Refund
Value is in Isla Vista, with low-income families coming daily to collect recyclable cans and bottles from homes and apartment complexes.
In order for this type of collection program to take off, the City of Santa Barbara’s
Creeks Division would need to get in contact with local recycling agencies to determine which ones would be interested in recycling cellulose acetate, the main material in cigarette filters. Once an appropriate recycling agency is involved, one way to make our target audience aware of the cigarette butt recycling program would be with a catchy slogan such as, “Be smart, do your part, collect butts!” However, one disadvantage we came across with this type of strategy is the possible perverse incentive of smokers thinking someone else will pick up their butts. With this as a possible downfall to the program, we suggest that it would be more effective if it was implemented as either a quarterly or annual event that could last a whole month. The incentivized collection program would not need to be continuous and would be able to promote a cigarette butt awareness week which would further the clean up of improperly disposed butts. This type of recycling program can be applied to achieve the message that cigarette butt collection will be awarded because it helps maintain a pristine environment for all to enjoy.
Social Media: Facebook
Facebook is a useful and inexpensive tool for any social campaign. Facebook is by far the most utilized social networking site among the sample, with 81% of the smokers surveyed identifying as Facebook users. Keep in mind that Facebook users are inundated with advertisements, so the ad must be a major attention grabber, either through its
19 message or graphic. The most successful ads on Facebook are either humorous or horrific.
We anticipate more success with the horrific route for addressing behavioral change, since humorous attempts will not be taken seriously enough to truly reform litter habits.
Regardless of the ad’s content, Facebook is not a sufficient channel for deep seeded behavioral change, but rather a tool for spreading information and public recognition of the cause.
To advertise a campaign or attract viewers to the Santa Barbara Creeks Division
Facebook page, we recommend purchasing targeted Facebook ad space. To do so, go to the
Santa Barbara Creek Division Facebook page and click on “admin panel.” Select “build audience,” then click “create an ad.” Fill in the necessary details, and under “People will see” choose “new ad about Santa Barbara Creeks Division.” After uploading the ad or message, they will ask to “Choose Your Audience.” Select your audience by city, and input the “Santa Barbara,” “Goleta,” “Isla Vista,” and “Montecito” networks, checking the box for those within 50 miles, for all genders, ages 18-65. There are other options for selecting a more specific audience with precise interests, however, smokers will not usually identify as such in an online social network. Make sure to select “Only people not connected to Santa Barbara Creeks Division” under the “Connections” section, to avoid solicitation of those already aligned with the cause. Using these settings, the ad will reach up to an estimated 310,800 people; the amount of users reached will depend on the campaign budget, which can be chosen as a daily budget or campaign lifetime budget.
Under the “Objective” section, select “Show this to people who are most likely to click on my sponsored ad or story.” This will allow the ad to achieve maximum exposure in the most cost-effective manner, as charges will only apply when a user clicks on the ad. Each
20 click will cost around $0.88, but many more users will be exposed to the ad without an additional charge if they choose not to click. The campaign will run until the budget is depleted.
Although Facebook is a powerful tool for dissemination of information, it is better for bringing people together and coordinating campaigns than inspiring true social or behavioral change. The advertisements surely promote awareness, but Facebook cannot ensure absorption of the advertisements, they can merely attract people to the cause. For these reasons, Facebook is a powerful supplement to the four strategies explained above, but not a substitute for these strategies.
Conclusion
All four proposed strategies for reduction of cigarette butt litter can be effective;
however, due to Santa Barbara Creeks Division’s limited staff and resources it may not
be feasible to implement all strategies simultaneously. For this reason we recommend
selecting one or two of the four programs to focus on -at least initially. Based on our
surveys, interviews and research, law enforcement and improved infrastructure are the
most effective paths to motivating real and lasting behavioral change in smoker’s
disposal habits. Both are the only strategies that influence all groups of smokers (as
defined in Sample vs. Target Population section). Law enforcement has been proven
extremely successful in other cities and our creative ideas to improve infrastructure are
very publicly visible and get many community members involved, essentially doubling as
an educational outreach program. The primary hurdle for both these strategies is that
other municipal organizations must give their support and it may be difficult and time
consuming to penetrate these bureaucracies and obtain approvals. A key advantage
21
however, is that once other groups, such as the Mayor’s Office, SB Police Department,
and Santa Barbara Downtown Association are brought on board, the workload is
dispersed and far more resources are allocated to achieving the Santa Barbara Creeks
Division’s ultimate goal of reducing cigarette litter. Social media offers highly-targeted
public outreach can be done at extremely low cost and therefore should not be ignored.
Facebook is the primary social networking medium utilized by all Santa Barbara
residents, including smokers, and should be applied to any campaign that is undertaken.
22
Graph Appendix
Figure 2 Figure 1
Figure 4 Figure 3
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Figure 6 Figure 5
Figure 7
24
Figure 8
Figure 9
Figure 10
25
Figure 11
Figure 12
Figure 13
Figure 14 26
Figure 15
Figure 16
27
Figure 17
Figure 18
Figure 19
28
Best Practices Appendix
Australia – ‘Butt Cops on the Beat’
Dash, Sushi. "Butt cops on the beat." theage.com.au. The Age, 2003. Web. 12 Jun 2012.
Keep America Beautiful: Guide to Cigarette Litter Prevention
"Cigarette Litter Prevention." Keep America Beautiful , 2008. Web.
Japan- ‘New Ordinance Target Tokyo’s Discarded Butts’
"New ordinances target Tokyo's discarded butts." The Japan Times, 02/08/2003. Web.
Surfrider and Cigarettelitter.org Partner to Clean Up Manhattan
Beach, CA
“Surfrider and CigaretteLitter.Org Partner to Clean Up Manhattan Beach, CA”. Fall/Winter Newsletter. 2003. Web. http://www.cigarettelitter.org/index.asp?PageName=NewsQ303
“Walk your Butt to the Can” Des Moines Iowa Campaign
“Walk your Butt to the Can” Des Moines Iowa Campaign." preventingcigarettelitter.org. Operation Downtown , n.d. Web. 12 Jun 2012.