While Earth Day was officially over the weekend, some Cuesta College students kept the momentum going by picking up discarded cigarette butts around the San Luis Obispo campus on Wednesday.
Cuesta College started the process of becoming a tobacco-free campus in 2016, but that hasn’t stopped some people from leaving their butts behind.
The Cuesta College Tobacco Control Team used Wednesday’s event to focus on the impact that tobacco has on the environment. Organizers say it takes one tree to make about 300 cigarettes, which translates to one tree every two weeks for a pack-a-day smoker.
"Smoking is on the decline although with vaping, it is now on the rise with youth and you would think that we would not see that many cigarettes now, but there are tons. It’s the number one most littered item," said Ashley Allen, health education specialist.
Cuesta College will officially become a completely smoke and tobacco-free district on January 1, 2019.
The San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department is providing smoking cessation resources for students. For more information, contact tobaccofree@cuesta.edu.
