Harrisburg – The Monroe County Cooperative Extension has received a $2,000 grant from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), announced Rep. Mario Scavello (R-Monroe).

The grant will be used to purchase cigarette butt receptacles, which will be placed around parks and recreation areas. 

Educational materials will be developed to remind smokers that littering cigarette butts can have environment consequences.  Many forest fires are started when a lit cigarette is tossed from a car and ignites dry brush during droughts, which can cause hundreds and even thousands of acres to burn.

The education program will include presentations, articles, newsletters and the placement of signs detailing the harm to the environmental of littering nonbiodegradeable cigarette butts.

“One cigarette butt may not seem like much litter, but it adds up,” said Scavello.  “Like any piece of litter, a cigarette butt should be properly disposed of, not flicked out a car window, or dropped carelessly in a public park, or emptied from a car ashtray in a parking lot.”

The grants come from DEP under the Environmental Education Grant Program established by Act 24 of 1993.