More trash cans and cigarette receptacles in Ithaca New York

The facilitators of this petition believe this issue is very important to the ecological and economical stability of Ithaca as much of the attraction to Ithaca is to our natural areas and the natural beauty of our neighborhoods.

Ithaca is a college town that makes much of its profit by being appealing to student from around the world trash and litter damage that beauty and thus damage our attraction to those students.

Our policy regarding the societal problem is the addition of trash receptacles and cigarette ash cans in key heavily populated areas in Ithaca such as the commons and the college town business district.

There is much statistical evidence of the effect of untreated litter and trash on waterways and natural areas for one example a study conducted by clean Virginia waterways showed that cigarette butts (38% of litter nationwide according to studies preformed at California state university) causes pollution in waterways sufficient to kill small animals necessary to the environment.

In addition cigarette litter comes at a cost to the department of streets and facilities in an estimation made in a similar environment to the Cornell campus Penn state spent 150,000 dollars picking up butts on their 15000-acre campus.

Ithaca cannot afford the time or money necessary to keep our streets clean under current circumstances however there is a way to reduce the amount of litter.
We believe by adding thirty to sixty public trashcans to the residential and business districts of Ithaca there will be a decrease in the amount of trash thrown on the street.