Keep WR Beautiful Partners with GMC to Fight Litter

Warner Robins community members take a stand against littering in this week’s “Going Green, Saving Green. They’re targeting cigarette butts, which happens to be a big issue nationwide.

Hundreds of cigarette butts were collected from the Warner Robins Georgia Military Campus.

“We didn’t think we’d find that much,” says GMC Student Alex Sampson.

All those butts where found on just one block.

Keep Warner Robins Beautiful Board member, Ben White, says “They might not normally throw a can or a bottle…cigarette butts just seem to be one of those things that you know that they don’t consider to be litter.”

White says it’s a big problem, “cigarette butts are the #1 litter item in America.”

To help curb the issue, students at GMC partnered with Keep Warner Robins beautiful and counted cigarette butts that were tossed aside on the ground.

Sampson says, “Sadly, maybe about 80 to 90 cigarette butts, which was really shocking for us because you normally don’t think of that as being a big issue.

Through a grant Keep Warner Robins Beautiful handed out cigarette containers to local businesses.

White says, “They have to clean up the cigarette butts in front of their businesses. A lot of the businesses are aware of that being a major litter issue as well.”

According to White, less trash means less money spent cleaning up the mess. He says after the receptacles were passed out there was a 14% decrease in the number of cigarette butts on the ground.

It’s just one step toward preserving the community.

Sampson adds, “It also helps the whole City of Warner Robins to see that we care, and we’re making a difference to make sure we do keep it nice.”