Ashtrays for Javea smokers

JAVEA’s town hall, Rotary Club and Club Nautico are targeting beachgoers and boat-owners.  
Their joint objectives are seabeds and sands without cigarette ends.  Ever-present on the beaches these are difficult to remove with the machinery used for cleaning while smokers on boats pollute the seabed by throwing cigarette ends in the sea. 
Ten thousand cardboard ashtrays are being distributed on Javea’s beaches this summer to discourage smokers from stubbing out cigarettes in the sand.   
Cardboard was chosen deliberately so that if smokers leave the ashtrays on the beach, they will not be leaving more plastic behind them.  Nevertheless, the organisers hope that that the ashtrays will be deposited in special methacrylate containers installed on seafront promenades. 
This, it is hoped, will demonstrate to smokers that thousands of cigarettes are left on Javea beaches each day. 
Javea’s Rotary club was behind the idea, explained local president Luis Santos, as protecting the environment is a principal Rotary objective this year.  
The Club Nautico has also joined the scheme and will hand out the ashtrays to members. 
“We have been organising coastal clear-ups for years and we always find more cigarette ends than anything else,” said the Club Nautico’s manager, Luis Nogueroles.