Beach News – Possible Smoking Ban on Florida Beaches

There is no shortage of cigarette butts on Florida’s beaches according to the Florida Conservation for Ocean Conservancy, which has been organizing the International Coastal Cleanup for over 35 years around the world. According to them, cigarette butts are the number one littered item on Florida’s beaches.

Several attempts during previous legislative sessions have been unsuccessful, but once again, in 2022, a bill sponsored by Senator Gruters from Sarasota would allow municipalities and counties to ban smoking on beaches and in parks and state parks. The proposed legislation, SB 224, has already passed a committee and there is a similar bill in the house, HB 105.

This time this bill is gaining traction among community activists. According to Gruters, “Florida beaches are the economic engine of our state and people travel from around the world to visit our pristine beaches. We must do everything that we can to protect our most valuable asset.”

On Marco Island, the Beach and Coastal Resources Advisory Committee had been collecting data on the ugly, yucky cigarette butts since 2018 - these items were collected and counted during their monthly collection but halted in 2020 due to COVID.

Still during monthly beach cleanups, cigarette butts are present and plentiful. They are small and easily concealed underneath the sand. They are easily mistaken for food by wildlife and their filters are slow to degrade. The filters also contain toxins such as tar, arsenic, ammonia and formaldehyde.

The SB 224 and HB 105 2022 legislative proposals to “get butts off Florida’s beaches” will make it illegal for people to smoke on Florida’s public beaches, parks and state parks with fines up to $25 or 10 hours of community service.

Florida beaches may soon be butt-free and parents will also be worry free when their children play in the sand. Often, cigarette butts are mixed in with the sand and have to be picked up by hand and discarded. Just because you are out in the open does not mean that second hand smoke isn’t blowing directly in your or your child’s face.

January 2022 Beach Clean-Up – Thanks to Marco Island Academy’s Key Club members who woke up early to pick up trash, collecting about 60 pounds of trash in just two hours. Numerous members of the public also joined the morning cleanup.

Bird Injuries and Rescues:

According to the November Marco Island Police Department Beach Report, they rescued eight assorted wildlife from the beach and took them to von Arx Wildlife Hospital. Brittany Piersma and her team of shorebird volunteers have been very busy responding to reports of injured birds on the beach. In October, they took 11 injured birds to the Wildlife Hospital; in November, nine injured birds and in December, 19 injured birds. Most are injuries attributed to fishing line and hook entanglements according to Piersma.