Ladispoli, Italy: Activists are trying to get smokers to clean up their act on Italy"s public beaches.
Volunteers of Marevivo environmentalist group distributed some 100,000 pocket-size ashtrays over the weekend along more than 300 of Italy"s sunny beaches to discourage people from using the sand as an ashtray.
"But the sea is not worth a butt?" read the volunteers" T-shirts as they handed out the insulated plastic envelopes allowing smokers to extinguish cigarettes and then store the used filters for future disposal.
The United Nations Environment Programme says more than 500,000 butts are tossed into the Mediterranean Sea every day, but it takes up to five years until the environment fully absorbs them. Butts can be fatal for whales, tortoises, sea birds and fish.
Marevivo, which literally means "living sea", has been leading the campaign to sensitise smokers to the impact of their habit for three years now.
"Cigarettes butts represent 40 per cent of the pollution of the beaches, while the plastic bottles account only for 9.5 per cent. Thus the impact is very strong," said Marevivo volunteer Rita Paone.
"We always complain about the dirty sand and sea, but now we can do something ourselves," said Daniele Manzoni a smoker on a beach.
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