Kicking Butt in the Richmond

Nearly every neighborhood in San Francisco faces the problem of rampant littering of cigarette butts and other trash. It’s overwhelming, and sometimes feels like it’s easier not to care. Not every neighborhood is as lucky as the Outer Richmond, with neighbors like Pawel, business owners like Yuka of Cassava, and the organizations like the amazing Richmond District Neighborhood Center, who actually do something about it. Pawel saw one of our Hold on to your Butt cigarette recycling receptacles -- "buttcylers"-- and thought “every neighborhood should have these.” He reached out to Yuka, also head of the Balboa Village Merchants Association who emphatically agreed.

To raise awareness about the cigarette butt littering problem -- which many people don't notice -- we organized a cigarette butt cleanup. Pawel spearheaded the effort, with support from Surfrider and our friends at Public Works' fantastic Adopt-A-Street program

In about 2 hours, 14 volunteers collected over 6,000 cigarette butts, and 8 bags of trash. We'll be highlighting these results at the next Balboa Village Merchants Association meeting. The proof is in the butt, as they (may or may not) say, and we hope the passion and efforts of this neighborhood to have clean streets, free of toxic plastic cigarette litter, will make installation of cigarette receptacles or buttcyclers a no-brainer. The Richmond District Neighborhood Center is leading the way! They've adopted 5 receptacles, an amazing show of support and commitment to a cleaner, safer neighborhood.


Local bakeries Butter Love and Marla Bakery offered sweet treats for all of those who participated, and business owners thanked volunteers countless times. The cleanup was even featured in the Richmond Blog and got a shoutout from Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer's office -- not too shabby for a week or so's worth of preparation and a couple hours of good dirty fun!

(Image credits, from top: Sandra Lee Fewer's office, Ken Pechous, Pawel Dlugosz)