By ELLEN BEVIER
I’ve rarely witnessed anyone actually toss litter on the street or stub out a cigarette in my front yard, but that’s where the stuff turns up.
In my part of the College Area we have a westerly breeze that moves along bits and bobs each afternoon. Most of it comes to rest in a gutter until humans put it in the trash, or rainwater carries it into the storm drains and out to the ocean. (Hint: Please sweep. The cleanliness of the sidewalk and gutter in front of your house, apartment building or business is your responsibility.)
It is said that cigarette butts —1-inch, single-use plastic filters made of cellulose acetate — are the most common form of litter on Earth, with 6 trillion discarded each year. A research project at San Diego State University is just ramping up to calculate the impact locally and look for “practical, affordable and effective solutions,” according to Dr. Georg Matts of SDSU, the principal investigator. He spoke at a kick-off for the effort last month in San Diego, noting that 6 trillion equals 6,000 billion.
Groups like I Love a Clean San Diego County and the Surfrider Foundation have been sounding the alarm about the impact of cigarette butts on the local environment for years in reports based on their cleanup drives. By the way, I love a Clean San Diego’s 37th annual event will be Sept. 18. Go to cleanupday.org for information.
The Tobacco Product Waste Reduction Project at SDSU will train and work with staff and citizen volunteers who will use i-Pads and GPS technology to map tobacco discards on 120 blocks in eight cities in the county — including San Diego and Council District 9 (that’s us). The other cities are Chula Vista, El Cajon, Escondido, San Marcos, Vista, Oceanside and Carlsbad.
“The SDSU researchers are studying all types of tobacco product waste – everything from cigarette butts, cigar tips, cannabis butts, and e-cigarettes, to rolling papers, packaging, smokeless tobacco tins, and lighters,” a spokeswoman for the project reported in a briefing paper on the effort.
The project is funded by California’s Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program and is getting under way now. Fact sheets about the project are available in English and Spanish. Go to merg.sdsu.edu/tpwr-project for more information and to become a volunteer.
My personal observation: One place researchers might consider checking out is left-hand turn lanes at signal-controlled intersections. Cigarette butts just seem to accumulate in the driver-side gutters. I doubt they get there by blowin’ in the wind.
And speaking of SDSU…
In-person instruction for 83% of classes at SDSU begins Monday, Aug. 23. Move-in time at the SDSU dorms happens on Aug. 18-20. For some privately operated dorms it is Aug. 15. Of course, students have been arriving at their College Area neighborhood rentals since the first of August.
The California State University system announced July 27 that students, faculty and staff working on campus must be vaccinated against COVID-19. For SDSU, vaccination certification is required by Aug. 16. If someone is in the process but will not be fully vaccinated by
Aug. 20, they can file a temporary waiver request and be placed on a testing program until fully vaccinated. Staff and students are able to seek medical and religious exemptions.
Good news for 2022: the first SDSU football game in the Aztecs’ new Mission Valley stadium is set for Saturday, Sept. 3.
College Area boards on hiatus
The College Area Community Planning Board and the Community Council do not meet in August. In September, nominations will be accepted for seven open seats on the twin boards, with a vote to be taken at the October meeting. These seats would have been up for election last March but the pandemic delayed the process.
A bylaws committee that has been working on a proposal to separate the Planning Board and the Community Council has been reviewing feedback from the July meeting and hopes to revisit the topic in September.
— Ellen Bevier is a CAPB and CACC member.
