Sunset Beach Community Association

What, you may ask, is a “No-Butts-Left-Behind” Zone?  Is it some kind of catch phrase to remind us not to leave a buddy, or a child, or our wife/husband or girlfriend/boyfriend behind?  No, it is not.   Is it a new City Planning and Zoning designation?  No, not really.   Is it another beach restriction?  Nope – and please, I think we can all agree that we don’t need any more restrictions.  Does it have anything to do with beach re-nourishment?  No, you’re way off base with that guess – you’re cold, cold, cold.  Does it have something to do with smoking on the beach?  BINGO!

Basically, those of us who participate in the monthly beach clean-up effort our Sunset Beach Civic Association sponsors have noticed a reoccurring theme in our clean-up efforts and that reoccurring theme is that we continually pick-up a great number of cigarette butts & plastic cigar tips– and I’m talking about a number in the hundreds.  We have picked up so many “butts” that some of us have decided that we need to try something new and different to get a message out to those smokers who must be completely oblivious of the consequences of their actions (I say oblivious because I flat-out find it hard to believe that so many smokers consciously throw or put out their butts in the sand and leave them for the rest of us to deal with).

The SBCA’s Beach Clean-up Committee has come up with the idea to designate our beach as a “No-Butts-Left-Behind” Zone and put out some information to encourage those who smoke and leave their “butts” behind to not do so.  Please be advised that the Beach Clean-up Committee is announcing that we are officially declaring Sunset Beach to be in a “No-Butts-Left-Behind” Zone.  So, if you’re reading this and you’re a smoker, and you are one of the many who, consciously or unconsciously, leave their “butts” behind, to please refrain from doing so because you are now doing so in a “No-Butts-Left-Behind” Zone.  And, if you’re a non-smoker, I hope you don’t find this idea of ours too outrageous.  In fact, we’re trying to use a little humor here to “remind” those who do leave their butts behind, to no longer do so.

Another way we will be attempting to get information out to smokers is that we will be posting “No-Butts-Left-Behind” Zone signs.  The Association has targeted the Beach Pavilion area as our testing grounds where, working with the City, we will be erecting signs that indicate that you are entering a “No-Butts-Left-Behind” Zone.  The signs will help explain who the target audience is – after all, this is not a cheeky effort to keep people from leaving people in the sand, we’re talking about nasty cigarette butts here!  The sign will include our website for clarification as to what a “No-Butts-Left-Behind” Zone.

In closing, over the past two years I have actively participated in the SBCA’s beach clean-up efforts.  Dutifully, many of us volunteers have shown up on the second Saturday of each month (beginning at 9:00 in the morning) to canvas the beach and dunes to pick up trash.  We have picked up lots of things, but the overwhelmingly most picked up item we continuously find ourselves picking up are cigarette butts and plastic cigar tips (and it shouldn’t be this way).   And, although we are not all convinced that this effort to designate Sunset Beach as a “No-Butts-Left-Behind” Zone will make a difference, we are all in agreement that something needs to be done and some additional effort needs to be undertaken to bring the situation to the attention of our residents and guests who smoke and who don’t seem to understand the consequences of their actions because nobody, and I mean nobody – not me, not my neighbor, nor any of our guests – likes an unclean beach.  Steve Yost, [email protected]