We have a new guest in house for the month of September, he is a 3 ft. sea turtle made from approximately 1200 cigarettes collected by Ocean Hour volunteers on Pensacola Beach in about just 40 minutes! His purpose is to bring awareness of the cigarette butt issue to life for Pensacola Beach residence and visitors.
Important Points:
- Cigarette butts are actually made of plastic and are non biodegradable.
- Consumption by marine life can cause choking and starvation (the believe they are full).
- Several compounds, nicotine and ethyl-phenol, leach into the environment while floating.
- Butts are consistently listed as the MOST common item collected during coastal cleanups.
Margaritaville Beach Hotel is a proud Smoke Free property and are excited to bring awareness to all visitors and local residence this month. The simplest solution to this problem is to dispose of your filter properly but also remember that even if we clean up all of the beaches, butts will still find their way down rivers and streams via storm water.