Posted on 10/16/2024 5:34:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
New ordinance set to take effect in 2027
The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors Tuesday unanimously approved an ordinance that will, in a little more than two years, ban the sale of filtered cigarettes in unincorporated areas of the county.
The Supervisors will hear a second reading and final adoption on Oct. 29.
Santa Cruz-based Save Our Shores says that volunteers picked up more than a half-million cigarette butts in the Monterey Bay area over the past decade, a problem made more pervasive by the toxic chemicals in the plastic filters. Worse, they remain in the environment for years.
“This is a momentous day that builds on the work our community has been doing for generations to protect our environment and establish Santa Cruz County as a global leader in the environmental movement,” Board Chair Justin Cummings said. “While the County is the first to take this step, by no means will we be the last. We look forward to working with local cities and other jurisdictions to protect our coast, our environment and our people.”
The ordinance was developed by the Board’s Tobacco Waste Ad Hoc Subcommittee and supported by a broad coalition of environmental, health, educational and other groups and stakeholders.
Once implemented, the ordinance would prohibit the sale of filtered cigarettes. It will not affect the sale of unfiltered cigarettes or cigars, loose-leaf and chewing tobacco, unflavored vape pens or other tobacco products. The ordinance will go into effect Jan. 1, 2027 or when two other local jurisdictions pass similar prohibitions, whichever is later.
“Cigarette butts are the most littered item on the planet, they provide absolutely no health benefit to smokers, and they are poisonous to the environment. Let’s ban this toxic trash,” Supervisor Manu Koenig said. “This is a day for all Santa Cruz County residents to celebrate, and our hope is that this will be a catalyst for change throughout California and the rest of the country.”
While many members of the public spoke in favor of the new rule during the hour-long public comment period, some retailers expressed alarm at the unintended consequences.
Felix Blanco, who owns two businesses, proposed solutions such as adding disposal stations at beaches and supporting wider cleanup efforts. But he said that the new rule will affect a broad swath of different businesses.
“All the retailers, we’re not going to be able to adjust like you’re saying,” he said. “Some of us are going to go out of business”
Sherry Dang, who owns 7-Eleven stores in Watsonville and Santa Cruz, said customers will go to other businesses for their filtered cigarettes.
The proposed ordinance is not the first time the county has taken steps to reduce its environmental footprint. It was one of the first counties in the nation to implement curbside recycling to local ordinances banning single-use plastic bags, prohibit the use of polystyrene to-go containers, ban single-use plastic shampoo bottles in visitor accommodations and require to-go cups and single-use food service wares be certified compostable, among other things.
Former Santa Cruz County Supervisor Mark Stone, who also sat on the California Assembly, said that state lawmakers tried four times unsuccessfully to enact a similar law, but they all died in committee each time.
woo hoo!! Unfiltered Camels all the way! Cigars too.
Urinals will be no fun anymore.....
You gotta kill the time. The first thing you do is you inscribe your initials on the urinal. Then they run a little bit, then you wet down the entire urinal. “Wet down! Wet down! Wet down entire urinal! Cover all of the dry spots! Gotta get ‘em all! Every one! Gotta look, see if the light is shining.” Then..Then and only then are you allowed to go after the cigarettes at the bottom of the urinal! Targets of opportunity! Yeah. You had to break up them cigarettes. Field strip ‘em, my friend. Camels and Luckys were easy...but a Kent with a micronite filter. Takes three guys and a keg of beer. “C’mon guys! Hey...c’mon. Let’s go, man”
-George Carlin
Go Vapers, put these filthy tobacco-ists outta business, so we can vape inside restaurants and bars again, amen
Hard core smokers from all over California should save up their cigarette butts and make a once a year boat visit to Monterey Bay to dump their cigarette butts.
There could be a tourist cruise to do this.
I hate tobacco Nazis.
If there is an Indian Reservation nearby, it will do a booming business. College students will sell cigarettes out of the trucks of their cars in college dorm parking lots. The law will be difficult to enforce as black markets will abound.
And so we see yet another difference between conservatives and liberals.
Something is bad.
Conservative response: Just how bad is it?
Liberal response : Ban it! Ban it out of existence!
Can you still roll those cardboard tips into your reefers?
I have always wondered if outdoor smoking bans aren’t as much about the butts as about the smoke. The smoke disperses quickly but the butts stick around. When you crush out your unfiltered Camel or Pall Mall and scatter the last bits of tobacco and paper to the wind, no one will know you were ever there.
I think that’s the case with Santa Cruz, because filtered cigarettes are healthier.
Just more big government overreach into our civil liberties.
You can pinch the ends of unfiltereds like a roach, when you’re low on funds.
Boy! That solved a problem in crisis.
The hell with smoker’s health!
Our County’s polluted waters are more important!
Let’s put a tax on smokers and filtered water!
Tobacco is worse than “Grass,” let’s tax the hell out of both and see high jerks stagger about the streets, stripping filters......
Me and Tommy S. and Jimmy W. would sneak outside between classes in Junior High and share a cigarette. "Hot boxing" we called it. Several quick, deep drags and pass it around twice.
We'd go back to class weaving, dizzy, nauseas.
Back in the day, we field stripped our Pall Mall butts, ergo, no unsightly, smelly debris.
Of course, we did not realize how bad our fingers smelled!
Glad I was able to quit 12 years ago!
ban the sale of filtered cigarettes in unincorporated areas of the county.
Note this only applies in the part of the county outside the four incorporated cities.
Capitola
Santa Cruz (county seat)
Scotts Valley
Watsonville
They have a combined population of 138,345. The rest of the county is about 132,516, so this only applies to about half the county residents.
Cough cough... We prefer the term nonfiltered not unfiltered
Raising the BS flag on this claim.
Nobody, and I mean nobody, smokes on the beach in California. And they haven’t for a long time.
California may tolerate shoplifting and looting but they do not in any tolerate the flouting of smoking restrictions.
Unless, of course, you’re smoking weed. But there’s no filters to litter from weed.
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