When I was helping out as a volunteer some years ago at My Place, a temporary answer to the homeless encampment in Victoria, BC, one of the things I did was to pick up cigarette butts in a two block radius around the old fire hall which had been turned into a shelter.

This volunteer task came about because neighbours feared there might be needles and syringes near the elementary school just across the road. And rather than just cleaning up the school yard, Our Place – which runs various shelters and support programs – had said that volunteers would clean up a larger area.

Twice a week, I would go out armed with a trash picker and a can, and pick up garbage. I never found any needles, but I did find a great many cigarette butts. It seemed like some people regularly dumped their ashtrays on to the road when they parked their cars.

I quite often ran into people who were happy and said their neighbourhood had never looked so clean. One person was particularly pleased that our volunteer cleanup meant cigarette butts didn’t run into the drainage system and pollute the water.