BUTT OUT

Posted by Linda Balzer on Aug 29, 2018

Gary led us in a rousing rendition of O Canada before our traditional meeting breakfast!

Our Rotary Club of Port Moody Mission Statement.   DRUM ROLL.......
Cathy Morton gave us a talk on 'BUTT OUT' today. 

This year President Ian would like to feature our guest speakers at the beginning of the meeting so they have enough time to give their full presentation so this was the first week we were able to schedule it this way. Our speaker was Cathy Morton,  our Dave Stone’s wife for 28 years. Cathy was a career Lawyer most at ICBC as Chief Counsel ending her career there as Director of Claims Legal Services until she retired 5 years ago. Cathy has always been interested in environmental issues which has led her into her new venture.

1 Year ago she started picking up cigarette butts in her walks around the neighbourhood and putting them in small baggies. Posting pictures of the butts on line resulted in discovering a community of others interested in finding ways to solve the problem. Did you know 38% of our street litter is cigarette butts (the paper and tobacco are biodegradable but the filters aren’t), filters are made of plastic which holds the poison and when it gets washed into the waterways through our storm drains it carries the toxins with it and that every year there are 4.5-5 Trillion butts discarded into the environment. “THE WORLD IS NOT YOUR ASHTRAY” Different Cities are taking different steps to try to mitigate—education, recycling, national events, volunteer butt pick ups, ashtray in public spaces, etc. . 

Port Moody has an Environmental Protection Committee and Cathy is a member. She has been working with Coquitlam City Councilor Bonita Zarrillo on a “Pocket Ashtray” project. The “Ashtrays” allow smokers to collect their butts each time they smoke and take them to a place they can be put safely into garbage disposal. These “ashtrays” can be private labeled, used by anyone even non-smokers , and currently available in Vancouver City at gas stations, grocery stores, and convenience stores. Richmond has City sponsored initiatives as does Vancouver, Nanaimo, Prince Rupert, Lumby, Pender Islands and others are exploring what they can do and the State of Illinois is fining folks who discard their butts on the ground.

It was suggested we could possibly support a possible proposed Port Moody “Butt Blitz” in early May, tying it into our regular Heritage Mountain cleanup project that month for sure.

STAND by for MORE INFO

Mayor Mike Clay was a guest, always good to see Mike at our meetings.
A significant Anniversary this week.  Congratulations to Bill & Jackie on their 50th Wedding Anniversary.  

Announcements and upcoming events:  Mark your calendars please.

  1. Thursday September 20th “Murder Mystery Night” at the Train Museum 
  2. Saturday September 22nd  RIPS at Noon’s Creek Hatchery 
  3. Tuesday September 25th, Membership meeting - Linda's
  4. Saturday September 29th Coquitlam Sunrise’s “Amazing Race”
  5. Saturday September 8th Heritage Mountain Cleanup meet at Gallaghers at 9
  6. International Service committee is looking for projects our members can be doing “hands on” work in other countries.
  7. Claire is looking after our Social media image and is having interviews with members so we can talk about what Rotary means to us.
  8. Birthdays—Vida August 31st, Woody September 2nd and Glen September 3rd.
  9. Anniversaries: Bill and Jackie Lawrie 50th August 31st, Steve’s on September 2nd
  10. Congratulations to Ryan who rode  in the Ride to Cure Cancer last week,