On a warm, bright afternoon, Sinclair Community College students walk slowly through campus adapting to the changes spring has to offer.
Some pedestrians patiently wait on the sidewalk for their rides; two squirrels anxiously race back and forth between the trees; and a pile of a dead cigarette butts lay in the center of the walkway.
“There weren’t many piles of cigarette butts found years ago, but recently there has been more and more piles,” said Bob Creager, the Sinclair supervisor of buildings and grounds.
Creager said he has custodial workers cleaning cigarette butts from campus four hours a day, everyday, in an effort to keep it clean.
“There are plenty of designated smoking areas around campus, but people don’t obey the smoking laws,” Creager said.
He pointed out that there are 14 designated smoking areas scattered around campus for smokers; however, some smokers still can be found smoking anywhere they please.
“I would prefer smoking was in a designated area but it has continued to be uncontrollable issue and Campus Police hasn’t previously been able to enforce it,” Creager said.
If there were one thing to help the cigarette butt dilemma, it would be more ashtrays, Creager said. But ashtrays are not allowed to be near or between the buildings for safery reasons.
Director of facilities Woody Woodruff said that smokers discarding their cigarattes into mulch can cause a problem.
“Every time we mulch farms in undesignated areas, we get a few cigarette butts that burn up plants,” Creager said.
“There have been many mulch fires on campus and to my knowledge they were all started by careless smokers discarding a lit cigarette into the mulch beds,” Woodruff said.