The La Laguna City Council, in collaboration with the Teidagua consortium and the Water Supply Department, has launched a campaign to raise awareness regarding the significant quantity of cigarette butts that are discarded into the public sewer system. Annual sanitation and maintenance efforts across various areas in the municipality have seen the removal of over five million cigarette butts, amounting to more than two tonnes of this waste.
The Mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, stated, “The average monthly collection of cigarette butts has surpassed 420,000, a figure that continues to rise and poses a risk of obstructing our internal infrastructure as well as threatening our natural environment.” He also mentioned that the municipal cleaning regulations classify such behaviour as an offence, punishable by the Local Police.
Gutiérrez emphasised that the aim is not to criticise any segment of the population, as many individuals responsibly use designated bins for their tobacco products. “In fact, we have encountered individuals who mistakenly believe that drainage systems are appropriate places to dispose of their cigarette butts, highlighting the necessity of raising collective awareness to collectively eliminate these practices,” he remarked.
Meanwhile, the Water Supply Councillor, Ángel Chinea, noted that “in just the central area of La Laguna, over three million cigarette butts are collected from the drains each year, equating to 1.27 tonnes of litter.” He cautioned, “Our estimates suggest that specific drains in the historic centre can gather up to 600 cigarette butts daily, even though bins are located mere metres away from these drains.”
Chinea also reminded that “the effects of rainfall or cleaning actions undertaken by local businesses and the City Council’s cleaning teams may result in some of this waste being washed into our ravines, and eventually making its way to our coastlines.”
The City Council further highlighted that Teidagua has considerably enhanced these initiatives in recent years, scheduling monthly cleaning operations for the over 8,000 drains located throughout the municipality. Additionally, weekly preventive cleaning is conducted on all grates of the wastewater pumping stations, where a substantial portion of the debris continues to comprise sanitary wipes, they reported.
