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Tamarack Centre’s citywide cleanup a success
On September 23, Tamarack Centre launched the second phase of its Butt Out Campaign.
Joined by College of the Rockies, and Wildsight Cranbrook/Kimberley, and a crew of dedicated consumers, Tamarack Centre initiated a citywide cleanup scouring the city for disposed cigarette butts. Tamarack Centre first launched the Butt Out Campaign in April in an effort to reduce the toxic waste left behind from leftover cigarette butts.
Tamarack Centre’s citywide cleanup proved to be a success. The team collected 49.57 pounds of tobacco waste bringing their number to 267,573 cigarette butts collected since the launch of their campaign in the spring. Tamarack hopes to double the weight of cigarette waste collected by the time their campaign wraps in May 2016.
“We’re so proud of our team and what we have accomplished so far,” said Cristina Borgogelli, Marketing Manager at Tamarack Centre. “We are almost half way to our goal of collecting 250 pounds of waste by spring.”
Tamarack Centre is asking community members to help reduce waste by collecting cigarette butts from their homes, offices and restaurants. They also initiated their first “butt-pick-up day” on April 13 and collected an initial 49 pounds of cigarette waste.
When the Butt Out Campaign launched, Tamarack Centre hoped the people of Cranbrook would see a positive impact on their community. At the second citywide cleanup they enjoyed engaging with active members of the community and seeing new volunteers join the cause.
“It’s been great to see the people of Cranbrook come together to affect a positive change on their community,” said Borgogelli. “Our goal is to not only keep the Tamarack Centre property clean but to reduce and recycle waste from downtown, parks and other recreation areas. We hope to encourage smokers to dispose of waste in the Butt Out Canisters and bins around town and are happy to collect and send out the butts for recycling. When we heard that butts could be recycled, Tamarack Centre jumped on board to help in this nation-wide effort. Locally we have extended this collection to Cranbrook and feel that more can be done to keep butts off of the ground. With the help of the community we know we can continue to make a positive impact. The butts will be sent to Terracycle, which will recycle them into plastic pallets used for shipping goods.”
For more information on how to get involved, call the Tamarack administration office at 250-426-2231, and to join the cigarette brigade by visiting: www.tamarackcentre.ca.
Lead image: Students from College of the Rockies joined Tamarack Centre on September 23 for the second citywide cleanup.
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