Thanks to the Helen Schuler Nature Centre and community volunteers, The Great Lethbridge Butt Pick has returned.
This month, you can join in on the movement to get rid of Lethbridge’s pain in the butt – discarded cigarettes.
According to organizers, the project is aimed at cleaning up cigarette butts in the community. Every year, shoreline cleanups across Canada uncover a common culprit: cigarette butts.
Cigarette butts, the Centre reports, are consistently the most common item collected in cleanups, and Lethbridge is no exception.
In 2024, 35 per cent of the items picked up (by number) in the River Valley were butts.
It’s likely many were dropped on the ground in the city and washed to the river by storm drains from city streets and sidewalks.
Resource Development Coordinator Chelsea Sherbut says even if you don’t smoke or litter, cigarette butts are everyone’s problem. “They end up in our waterways, parks and sidewalks. That’s why this initiative matters. It’s about all of us taking responsibility for the spaces we share.”
Cigarette butts are a fairly persistent problem.
According to Sherbut, some people don’t know cigarette butts don’t break down. “These things contain a plastic in the filter, and they don’t properly biodegrade.”
You can do your part by picking up cigarette butts in your neighbourhood, parks and the River Valley.
Remember to use gloves and trash pickers for safe collection.
Until July 31, collected cigarette butts can be deposited into the marked bins at any of the three Yard Waste and Recycling Depots.
Outside of the month-long Butt Pick campaign, extinguished cigarette butts should be tossed in garbage bins or residential black bins.
Sherbut adds after having conversations with folks, it was noted, “It’s not as easy to just stash a cigarette butt in your pocket like it is with a granola bar wrapper or something.“
“It still is litter. For that reason, we ordered pocket ashtrays. They extinguish cigarette butts themselves. You don’t have to put them out first. You can put it right in there lit. It’s air sealed, so they don’t stink. We have a number of those to give away at the Nature Centre.”
So far this month, Sherbut says, there have been some really good conversations, and cigarette butts have been collected at the Yard Waste and Recycling sites in the bins. “We’re having some good conversations. I think that was really the main objective.”
