SALERNO – A sea of butts. Exactly three kilos, around 10 thousand cigarette butts extinguished and then thrown on the ground as if nothing had happened. This is the “spoils of war” at the end of the morning collection organized by the association “I want a clean world” which for over two years has been actively fighting pollution and trying to spread a message for environmental protection and of the sea. About twenty volunteers who met around 9 on Saturday to give their own contribution in the attempt to change things, but above all to send out a signal. And on Corso Vittorio Emanuele, the “troop” led by President Ciccio Ronca has momentarily left the beaches where it also operates non-stop. And she bent over under the sun to remove thousands and thousands of extinguished and thrown cigarette remains, also picking up other types of waste for a total of nearly three kilos. A number that read in this way, lightly, risks appearing insignificant, but also assumes a completely different perception if one thinks of the weight of micro-waste, among other things also extremely polluting. A cigarette butt, in fact, weighs just between 0.2 and 0.4 grams, but it is its environmental impact that makes the butt one of the most dangerous and most difficult waste to dispose of, and creates enormous problems for the ecosystem.
«Not only do they represent a damage to the urban decor but they have a great impact on the environment, even and above all for a seaside city like Salerno. The wind carries everything into the water, where the fish unaware of the danger mistake the butts for natural food ”, explain the activists of“ I want a clean world ”, whose appeal to sensitize the population is quite eloquent. On the other hand, however, there is also a very direct and urgent request to the municipal administration, so that “it does not pretend nothing has happened, and proceeds to install ashtrays and more baskets for the city”, because even if it does not justify the incivility or neglect of the people for their own territory, for the association born in March 2019 the number of ashtrays is too small, especially for Corso Vittorio Emanuele.
Stefano Masucci