A week after cigarette-smoking ban, some still use Miami Beach as giant ashtray
MIAMI BEACH - On January 1st, Miami Beach joined other beach cities across the world banning cigarettes. Yet, a week after that ban went into effect, some are still using it like a giant ashtray.
CBS4 came out with Volunteercleanup.org's founder, Dave Doebler, to see what has changed, and how long it could take to see a marked improvement.
"We just walked out to the beach, and we are 30 steps in 4 people already smoking cigarettes," he told CBS4 while taking a survey.
Doebler's primary concern has been how toxic cigarette waste is to the environment, alongside issues of secondhand smoke from a lit cigarette.
"It looks like cotton but it's not this is cellulose plastic," he described the filter.
Those butts can also leach out chemicals, exposing them to wildlife and people.
"Did you make sandcastles today?" we asked Alice Xian who was playing on the beach with her family.
She replied, "Yes."
The Xian family were impressed with Miami Beach on this winter day but couldn't help noticing some of the debris in the sand, including cigarette butts.
"There's some notice that people should not leave their filters," Ying Xian pointed out.
Even her 3-year-old daughter knew it shouldn't be on the beach.
"Because it's not good for the sea animals," Alice Xian explained.
The new Miami Beach law is aimed at helping to reduce this kind of waste over time. MB Commissioner Alex Fernandez worked on the ordinance to ban cigarettes.
"I don't want people to be getting fines on the first day, I don't want people getting arrested, what I want is to educate people," he said.
With that said, the ordinance does state, there is a $100 fine or up to 60 days in jail for the first violation within a 12-month period.
Will there be a grace period? CBS4 asked that to Mayor Dan Gelber.
He responded, "I don't know how many arrests are going to be made, I think mostly our cops are going to go over to people and say you need to put that out and put it in a trash can."
Mayor Gelber thinks the law will make it easier for police officers to have this conversation with the public.
As for whether there are fewer cigarette butts on the ground, Doebler estimates there are still thousands still littered across the beach, but he's optimistic for change soon.
"If we cleaned this up and then we came back in a month, hopefully this would be reduced significantly," Doebler concluded.
