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6/18/2008

Chicago, Illinois area officials and environmentalists hope that a new law banning beach smoking will make a dent in the nation's most pervasive litter problem. Volunteers are removing countless cigarette butts from the shore, and the city will issue $500 fines to anyone caught smoking or tossing a cigarette scrap within 15 feet of a beach. Experts say cigarette butts are a serious litter problem, because they are found everywhere, they are toxic, and they are not biodegradable. They take between 10 and 15 years to turn into a fine powder and never totally biodegrade.