LA LAGUNA (TENERIFE), 30 Aug. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The La Laguna Town Council, in collaboration with the joint venture Teidagua and the Department of Water Supply, has initiated a public awareness campaign regarding the significant number of cigarette ends that find their way into the drains of the public sewer system. Through the sanitation and cleaning efforts on these infrastructures, over five million cigarette butts are being extracted annually from various manholes across the municipality, amounting to more than two tonnes of this type of waste.
The Mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, highlighted that “the average quantity of cigarette ends collected each month exceeds 420,000, a figure that is on the rise and poses a risk of blockages in our own internal systems as well as a threat to our natural surroundings.”
In this context, the mayor reminded that the municipal cleaning regulations classify such actions as an offence punishable by the Local Police.
The mayor clarified that “this is not about stigmatising any group within the community, as there are numerous individuals who responsibly utilise the appropriate bins and containers for disposing of their tobacco waste.”
In fact, he pointed out in a statement, “we have encountered individuals who still assume that drains are acceptable places to discard their cigarette ends, which emphasises the necessity of promoting collective awareness to eliminate these behaviours that jeopardise public property.”
Additionally, the councillor for Water Supply, Ángel Chinea, emphasised that “within the central area of La Laguna alone, over three million cigarette butts are removed from the drains every year, equating to 1.27 tonnes of rubbish.”
“Our projections indicate that some drains in the historic centre can gather as many as 600 cigarette butts daily, despite there being bins just a short distance away,” cautioned the councillor.
In this respect, Chinea reminded that “the actions of rainfall or cleaning carried out by local businesses and the City Council’s cleaning teams can result in some of this rubbish being washed into our ravines and, over time, accumulating on the coastlines.”
MONTHLY CLEANING INITIATIVES
The Teidagua joint enterprise has significantly bolstered these efforts in recent years, organising monthly cleaning initiatives across the more than 8,000 drains located throughout the municipality.
Furthermore, preventative cleaning is conducted weekly on all the grates of the wastewater pumping stations that form part of the sewage system, where a considerable amount of the waste removed still consists of sanitary wipes, despite numerous awareness campaigns targeting this issue.
“All the efforts we undertake in raising awareness will never suffice to reach that small segment of the local and visiting population that chooses to leave their waste in our sewage system without considering the potential consequences this minor act can have on our present and future in both the short and medium term,” stated Luis Yeray Gutiérrez.
