The New Ashtray
On rainy days, an ashtray near Lawrence Hall becomes messy. Tim King calls it "nicotine soup."
Tim King, an exterior maintenance supervisor for Facilities Services, said smokers need to get away from the buildings when they smoke cigarettes because the smoke tends to come into buildings through the doors or windows, and it bothers some people inside.
He said rainy days are the biggest problem because many smokers tend to smoke near the entrance under the roof. Also most ashtrays are exposed to the weather, and many butts float on the water on rainy days, he said.
"We call it 'nicotine soup,'" King said. "It looked awful for people, and we got rid of most of them."
King said the "10-foot rule" led to the decrease of ashtrays and smoking areas, so the university may need more spaces for smokers' options because they have a right to smoke. He said Facilities Services introduced the new ashtray called a "smoker's post," which has small holes to put butts in.
Facilities Services estimated that over 80 cigarette posts would be necessary to cover all campus areas and will set 25 to 30 posts on the campus walkways this spring, King said. Some posts have already been placed, such as near Erb Memorial Union and Cascade Hall, and some smokers tend to put cigarettes in the posts, he added.
Facilities Services has nine groundskeepers, and each has an area to clean up, King said. They usually clean butts three or four times a year and sometimes when they feel annoyed or get a complaint, King said. He recently cleaned up in front of Knight Library by himself, and it took 30 minutes of hard work. It usually takes longer.
"People are usually lazy to move even 10 feet to an ashtray," King said. "I think we are still going to clean cigarette butts. But we can hope it helps the situation."
A student puts his cigarette butt into a "smoker's post" near Cascade Hall.
"It bothers me," said King. "So if I see people throwing cigarettes on the ground, I ask them, 'Would you mind putting them into trash cans?' And no one rarely argues with that, so I hope people can change their attitude a little bit better."
If smokers want to say, "I have a right to smoke," they also have to be respectful to the other people, because cigarettes actually bother people, he said.
"I do not expect people stop smoking cigarettes," said King. "But they can stop throwing their butts and stay away from buildings to smoke."
Page: 1. Front Page 2. The New Ashtray 3. Health Concerns