It’s time to butt out, Chemainus. Or, at the very least, keep your butts out of downtown Chemainus.
The area around Mill Street and Willow Street is a disgusting mess, all from people tossing their cigarette butts on the ground.
This is a tourist town. How does it look to countless visitors with this filth scattered all over the place?
There is also mulch and ornamental trees throughout the downtown core that could easily ignite from a discarded butt.
There are many other areas around town where it’s just as bad.
Why can’t cigarette smokers get the message? Throwing butts on the ground doesn’t get rid of them; it just leaves them for someone else to clean up.
It’s as bad as the doggy poop scenario that draws the ire of residents on a continual basis, but that’s another story.
For once, it would be nice to see a cigarette smoker – just one, would be a start – place the butt in a bag or something and take it with them to be placed in the garbage later at their own residence.
There are still butts being tossed from car windows constantly as people drive along as well. It would be nice if some thought went into what was being done and the butts kept inside in an ashtray rather than thrown out to ruin the landscape for everyone else.
It really is very simple to change habits. No one should be smoking in the first place, but for those who do, a little consideration could go a long way.
Why don’t we make an effort to have Chemainus known as one of the cleanest little tourist towns anywhere instead of a haven for a filthy habit to be exposed?
For those who want to smoke, that’s your business. There are restrictions of locations that are stricter than ever before, but that doesn’t seem to have translated into a corresponding cleaner environment for some reason.
It shouldn’t be contingent on good samaritans to clear the streets of messy butts. It starts with one person doing the right thing and making sure they are helping to maintain the town’s beautification efforts.
