The purpose of this petition is to lobby the city of Carmel, CA to install cigarette but receptacles throughout the city.
Cigarette butts are the most frequently littered items in the United States today. Tobacco products make up roughly 38 percent of all U.S. roadway litter and comprise nearly 30 percent of litter at "transition points," which defined as areas where individuals consuming a food or tobacco product must discard the product before entering, such as the entrances to office buildings or retail stores.

Because a cigarette butt is relatively small, smokers tend to overlook the consequences of littering. Some smokers also erroneously assume that dropping butts into gutters or drains is a safe way to extinguish them. Many of those cigarette butts travel through storm water systems and end up in local streams and rivers polluting waterways. Cigarette butt litter can also pose a hazard to animals and marine life when they mistake the filters for food. Depending on the conditions of the area where the cigarette butt is discarded, it can take 18 months to 10 years for it to decompose.

A 2009 Keep America Beautiful litter study revealed a 65 percent littering rate among smokers. Both the availability of ash receptacles and the amount of existing litter affected the littering rate. Smokers are more likely to litter when an ash receptacle or a trash can is not close by. Please join Stephen Ferry, Director of The Art of Dr. Seuss gallery on San Carlos Street in cleaning up this wonderful community.