OCEAN CITY — A $2,000 grant is expected to further the resort’s efforts to install cigarette disposal containers to the west of the Boardwalk.
In a meeting of the Coastal Resources Legislative Committee, or Green Team, this week, committee chair and Councilman Tony DeLuca announced that the resort had received a grant award from the health department to fund an initiative that targets cigarette litter.
“We needed $2,000 so (Grants Coordinator) Wayne Pryor filled out a grant application from the health department and it was approved yesterday,” he said.
DeLuca said the city plans to use the money to purchase receptacles for areas to the west of the Boardwalk where cigarette butts often litter the street ends.
“Whenever we pick up (trash) along a beach, cigarettes are by far number one. There is nothing close,” he said.
DeLuca said the grant would allow the town to install the same receptacles found on the beach.
“We are going to do the exact same thing west of the Boardwalk that’s east of the Boardwalk,” he said.
DeLuca added that Public Works Director Hal Adkins would be meeting with staff in the coming weeks to determine possible locations, but he said the plan is to place a receptacle on every block of the Boardwalk.
“Once he has the money, he can have this done before spring,” he said.
Sandi Smith, development and marketing director for the Maryland Coastal Bays Program, said she was also working on a source reduction initiative that would target cigarette butts. As part of the program, resort businesses can receive a free receptacle and recycle the disposed cigarette butts.
“We are going to offer it to businesses that are willing to sign a pledge and are willing to recycle them,” she said.
Smith added that the businesses, as well as the town, would be able to package the cigarette butts and send them to TerraCycle, which will pay the shipping costs.
“We’ve got everything in place,” she said. “We are just waiting for the funding.”
