Councillor Luisa Boné said that “the ashtrays are conically shaped so that they can easily be stuck into the sand. They are reusable and very useful for collecting cigarette butts and small waste items such as chewing gum and nut shells, so waste that is not readily biodegradable and difficult to remove from the sand can be disposed appropriately.”
The councillor added that cigarette butts take up to ten years to break down in the sea and even longer if they are left lying in the sand. Due to their small size and light weight, they are very difficult for the cleaning services to remove.
This campaign is in addition to the one launched earlier this summer in Orihuela Costa schools , where books on good beach practices were distributed to teach the children how to behave on the beach.
At the beginning of the summer, cartoon stickers with childlike motifs were also affixed to the foot showers on the beaches to teach the children that they should not play with water and should use it sparingly.
One beachgoer said that although he was delighted with the council initiative, he thought that in this day and age it is disappointing that they are manufactured out of plastic, a lot of which will undoubtedly end up in the sea.
