After university facilities officials removed a large number of ashtrays set near campus buildings this past fall, some students have complained the measure has forced smokers to litter as discarded cigarette butts pile up all over the campus.
In September, the University Senate passed a policy requiring all smokers to stand at least 25 feet away from all campus buildings when they light up – an extension of the previous policy, which required smokers to stand at least 15 feet away. The senate then asked Facilities Management officials to remove all smoking urns that may cause students to violate the rules, according to Facilities Management Director Carlo Colella.
“This wasn’t an effort to discourage student smoking, it was an effort to uphold the policy,” Colella said. “It’s an individual’s right to smoke, but only where it’s permitted.”
Colella said there are currently about 150 smoking urns on the campus, but some student smokers said these urns are difficult to find. Several said the risk of igniting a fire by throwing cigarettes into a trash can made their only option tossing the butts onto the ground.
“I bet you’ll see 100 cigarette butts before you see one ashtray,” freshman letters and sciences major Patrick Markel said. “Even trash cans aren’t conveniently placed.”
University officials said it had been difficult for facilities workers to keep up with the littering problem. Harry Teabout, building and landscape services director, said workers will plant urns in areas at least 25 feet from building entrances once officials identify places with serious littering problems.
“If you place ash receptacles close by entrances, you’re inviting smokers to linger,” Assistant Director of Administrative Services Sandra Dykes said. “The department has employees assigned to keep entrances swept and cleared of this debris, but it is not entirely controllable.”
While some smoking policies at other colleges, such as Georgetown University, clearly state smokers are held responsible for disposing of their cigarette butts and ashes properly, this university’s smoking policy does not contain any specific guidelines for smokers to deal with their waste.
And the debris may be more than simply an eyesore. According to a 2000 study, cigarette butts do not decompose for up to 12 years, and when the debris comes into contact with water, toxic chemicals are rapidly released into the ecosystem.
Several students called the littering an embarrassment, saying more should be done to make ashtrays more accessible and hold more smokers accountable.
“Each side – Facilities Management and the student smokers – should do their part,” said senior environmental science major Christina Han. “It’s as much management’s fault for removing the ashtrays as it is the smokers’ for being careless.”
Other students said inconvenience is no excuse for creating an environmental hazard.
“Students need to understand that they pay thousands of dollars to come to this university. This is their home for the next four years,” freshman psychology major Greg Wolf said. “The incentive should come from wanting to keep what is essentially their front lawn clean.”
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