The city of Suffolk and six other Hampton Roads localities each played a pivotal role in the awarding of a national program award to askHRgreen.org for their Cigarette Litter Prevention Program which carried the theme of “Cigarette butts = litter.”

The award was presented at the Keep America Beautiful National Conference held on Feb. 1 in Orlando, Fla. The seven Hampton Roads locations reportedly reduced tobacco-related litter by an average of 74 percent across the sites that were targeted. In Suffolk, that percentage reached 93 percent in the downtown business district, where local efforts were focused.

The eight-week program launched last summer as part of a $12,500 Keep America Beautiful grant. The seven localities were provided with 35 new free-standing and wall-mounted cigarette butt receptacles to be placed in strategic site locations, in addition to 4,000 hand-held pocket ashtrays and 1,000 portable vehicle ashtrays to be distributed to adult smokers.

Additional project resources were provided by askHRgreen.org, which contributed new signage guiding smokers to the receptacles and educational materials emphasizing the impact of cigarette butt litter.

“Reversing attitudes and behaviors about cigarette litter should be an important issue for everyone, but it’s especially critical in Hampton Roads, which prides itself on our waterways, tourism attractions and business amenities,” said Julia B. Hillegass, askHRgreen.org team leader. “This shows we can stamp out cigarette litter by using a strategic, regional approach, and I hope recognition for our program will garner the attention of our region’s stakeholders.”

This askHRgreen.org project was unique in that it involved multiple municipalities, working under the direction of a project leader, John Deuel, and with the help of the HRPDC’s askHRgreen.org team. With input from the program’s participants, Deuel developed the program strategies, conducted training, organized regular meetings, visited the project sites and developed the final report.

“The success of this project demonstrates the value of a regional approach, which helps to reduce cigarette litter in more places over a shorter period of time,” Deuel said.