Quick Take
Environmental leaders Katie Thompson, Tracey Weiss and Dan Haifley are calling on Santa Cruz city residents to contact the mayor and city council by Tuesday in support of a ban on the sale of filtered tobacco products to protect coastal and ocean wildlife and habitats, and human health. Since 2013, Save Our Shores volunteers have collected 189,154 cigarette butts in Santa Cruz alone, they write. Cigarette filters are “the largest single item found in these cleanup efforts,” they say, adding that “the proactive step of banning filtered tobacco products would help alleviate that problem.”
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On Tuesday, June 10, the Santa Cruz City Council will consider a ban on the sale of tobacco filters in the city of Santa Cruz to protect our watersheds, beaches and ocean. Your voice is needed to support this effort, which builds upon the passage of a similar ordinance in Santa Cruz County in October 2024.
Right now, community partners are mobilizing to educate residents, speak to the media, work with youth and provide public comments about the persistent threat tobacco filters pose to our health as well as to the environment.
The worldwide plastic pollution problem is well known, as are its devastating consequences for habitats on land, at sea and even in the air we breathe. According to the United Nations Environment Program, 19 million to 23 million tons of plastic pollution finds its way into Earth’s waterways each year.
Janis Searles Jones, the CEO of the Ocean Conservancy, which coordinates the international coastal cleanup effort, said that in 2023, “nearly 470,000 volunteers across 97 countries picked up over 4,000 tons of trash and plastics.” While this intervention prevents solid pollution from entering our ocean, a large volume goes uncollected on land and does find its way seaward.
Annual coastal cleanups successfully prevent debris of all types, not just plastic, from entering our waters, a tradition that locally goes back to the early days of Save Our Shores in the late 1970s.
Over the decades since, cigarette butts have become one of the most collected items on Santa Cruz’s riverways and beaches. Between 2013 and 2024, Save Our Shores volunteers alone collected 463,779 cigarette butts from beaches, open spaces and public areas in the Monterey Bay region, and 40% of those butts (189,154) were picked up from within the city of Santa Cruz jurisdiction.
According to a 2023 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study that used community science data, 24.5% of all litter collected on the shoreline of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary between 2017 and 2021 could be attributed to smoking.
Cigarette butts are made of cellulose acetate, a non-biodegradable plastic that breaks into microplastics and bioaccumulates in marine organisms. They leach chemicals such as lead, arsenic and nicotine into the environment. These chemicals affect the health of the ocean and its inhabitants, along with vulnerable populations, including youth.
Cigarette butts impact public health, our ocean’s health and are a fire hazard, responsible for burning 88,898 acres in California since 1980.
Local governments and their taxpayers and conservation nonprofits have taken on the cleanup work and costs to protect Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary by frequently removing debris from beaches and waterways that flow to it. Because cigarette filters are the largest single item found in these cleanup efforts, the proactive step of banning filtered tobacco products would help alleviate that problem. The proposed ban on filtered tobacco products in the city of Santa Cruz is a step in the right direction.
To make your voice heard effectively, you could provide comment in person or virtually during Tuesday’s city council meeting (see agenda here) and email your letter to citycouncil@santacruzca.gov or to 809 Center St., Room 10, Santa Cruz 95060.
If we are successful, the result would be one small but significant step toward better health and a cleaner planet.
Katie Thompson is executive director of Save Our Shores.
Tracey Weiss is executive director of O’Neill Sea Odyssey.
Dan Haifley is an ocean activist.