The Town Council is launching an information and awareness campaign to prevent cigarette butts on the beaches, the aim being to reduce this type of waste because it is one of the most difficult to deal with and one of the most harmful to the environment.
The campaign involves the dissemination on social networks and at beach access points of various infographics with the slogan "The beach is not an ashtray" explaining the consequences of dumping cigarette butts on beaches, detailing that each cigarette butt can contaminate between 8 and 10 litres of sea water and that cigarette butts are the main source of waste found in the oceans, ahead of bottles or plastic wrappers.
The initiative is completed with the distribution of reusable ashtrays which can be found at the tourist information points located on the beaches of Arenal-Bol and La Fossa and at the tourist office in Las Salinas.
The councillor for the Environment, Pere Moll, said "the Department of the Environment is going to place great emphasis this summer on environmental education, which is one of the factors in achieving the blue flag. We started by raising awareness of the problem of cigarette butts on the beaches, but we will continue with other campaigns concerning posidonia and waste management".
Every minute, 8 million cigarette butts end up in nature, releasing more than 7,000 toxic substances, according to research by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). Cigarette butts are made of cellulose acetate, a component derived from petroleum, i.e. non-biodegradable plastic materials.