> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Santa Monica considers requiring bars and restaurants to provide cigarette receptacles - URL: https://www.smdp.com/butts-about-it/ - Published: 2005-08-02T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T07:32:24.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Business, Main St, #archive-import *City looks to snuff littering* *By SARA MILSTEIN Special to the Daily Press* MAIN STREET — A bar patron drew in the last of his cigarette and let it slip from between his fingers, dropping the butt onto the dirty sidewalk, and more than likely, sending it out to sea. It’s a familiar scene across Santa Monica, as barflies and restaurant patrons banished to the outdoors tend to drop their cigarettes to the ground. Thousands of smokers are forced to take their nicotine addictions outside as a result of a 1998 law that banned smoking in public places. But now — seven years after the ban — restaurants and bars might be forced to provide a place for those butts. Cigarette butts — often scattered around bar and restaurant patios — are the most littered item in America and around the world, according to litterbutt.com. Talk earlier this year among City Council members echoed a problem that began when the California smoking ban was passed in 1994 and enacted in ’98. Polls indicated that many Californians supported the ban, but few officials fore-saw its aftereffects. Legislation is currently being drafted in Santa Monica that would require restaurants and bars to provide smoking receptacles outside of their establishments, said Craig Perkins, director or environmental and public works at City Hall. The issue came to the forefront earlier this year when the City Council relaxed the law that limited business owners from placing items on the sidewalk. Specifically, businesses on Main Street asked that they be allowed to display merchandise and waiting benches in front of their stores. Thinking that ashtrays could be allowed, the City Council directed staff to research the idea and come back with a draft ordinance. It’s expected to be presented later this year. Perkins said his staff is looking at other cities with comparable laws for ideas. “It’s more complicated than ‘you must have an ashtray on the sidewalk,’” he said, adding that business owners need to maintain and manage the receptacles and disposal of cigarette butts. “If not, it could become a bigger problem.” Santa Monica Mayor Pam O’Connor said she would support a measure that would enforce responsible cigarette disposal. “As long as people smoke, they will need a place to dispose their cigarettes,” O’Connor said. “(Ashtrays) are a reasonable amenity for restaurants and bars.” Meanwhile, environmentalists like Mark Gold, the executive director of Heal the Bay, are left to brood over the 2,500 tons of trash and debris that are taken off the beaches annually, according to city officials. Gold recalls when his and other organizations first took a stand against cigarette litter after the California smoking ban was enacted. A bill was proposed in the state legislature that would have required restaurants and bars to provide cigarette receptacles in front of their establishments. Gold said the bill failed because many didn’t consider it a crucial enough issue to merit a statewide law. It is the hope of Heal the Bay officials and other groups that smokers will take it upon themselves to ensure environmental responsibility, not to mention legal disposal practices. Their biggest fight might just be defeating the misconception that cigarette butts are biodegradable. Ninety-five percent of a cigarette filter, often called a “butt,” is made out of cellulose acetate, a derivative of plastic. Filter material is slow to degrade and has a cottony appearance that often misleads smokers to believe it’s a naturally decomposing substance, when it’s not. Cigarette butts also can contain a strong toxin called alkaloid nicotine, which is among the deadliest of all plant products, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Cigarette waste is by far the most common item picked up as litter on beaches and sidewalks, said Heal the Bay officials, who organize Coastal Cleanup Day and other environmental initiatives. Filters are often washed from sidewalks and streets into the city’s storm drains and waterways, degrading water quality and the ocean’s health. Cigarette waste has been found in the stomachs of whales, fish, birds and other animals because they are sometimes unable to distinguish them from real food, according to scientists. Even though reports have shown a 60-percent decline in Californians’ cigarette smoking habits in the past 15 years, the amount of litter from cigarettes remains significant. “Santa Monica has a pretty huge infrastructure for collecting beach waste and trash,” said Andrew Basmajian, the environmental outreach specialist with City Hall’s environmental programs division. “While all those cigarette butts don’t account for much weight and volume, they are by far the most common item on the beach and greatest in number.” And while Santa Monica officials pride themselves on being leaders in environmental affairs and sustainable practices, it appears that local laws prevent the appropriate disposal of cigarette butts. “It is an important issue here, but there are many worse issues in this city,” said Willy O’Sullivan, owner of O’Brien’s Irish Pub on Wilshire Boulevard. “Security and crime are two of those issues.” O’Brien’s Irish Pub is part of a coalition of bars and restaurants which has discontinued its cigarette-selling license, but still finds City Hall’s laws vague and is unsure of what “items on the street” applies to. O’Sullivan said officials have warned him repeatedly that anything obstructing public walkways is against the city’s code. Despite that conflict, bars such as JP’s on Wilshire Boulevard make ashtrays available outside their front doors. Santa Monica’s efforts toward coastal and aquatic health have been significant in recent years, and include a wastewater reclamation facility, a co-mingled recycling program and a city-sponsored task force to oversee all environmentally related activities. As far as storm drain facilities and maintenance, City Hall owns and maintains about 2,000 storm drains, 650 of which have catch basins that are cleaned and maintained at least twice per year, according to Neal Shapiro, the city’s urban runoff expert. Catch basins are filter-like mechanisms that keep trash from eventually entering the ocean. Yet, if the sidewalks in front of numerous bars and restaurants are any indication, thousands of cigarette butts are washing into the Pacific just feet away. “All we can do is put the ashtrays out there and hope that people respect their purpose,” said David Caughey, the general manager at Finn McCools, a bar on Main Street. “That’s all we can really do.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/080205-02_01.jpg) Bar patrons catch a smoke break on Main Street, outside of Finn McCools, which provides outside ashtrays for its customers. (Photo: Fabian Lewkowicz/Daily Press) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/080205-02_04.jpg) A familiar sight in Santa Monica, spent cigar-rette butts lining sidewalks and street curbs. (Photo: Fabian Lewkowicz/Daily Press) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 2, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/080205.pdf?ref=smdp.com)