Mayor Michael Nutter signed an executive order yesterday to ban smoking in Philly’s parks.

According to the City of Philadelphia’s official wordpress account (speaking of which, can’t City of Phila afford a URL that doesn’t include .wordpress?),

Under this order, smoking is prohibited in more than 100 Philadelphia neighborhood parks and watershed parks, totaling more than 11,000 acres of public space.  This policy goes into effect immediately. “Eliminating smoking in public parks is a commonsense policy that clearly aligns with our City’s existing smoke-free regulations for recreation centers, pools and playgrounds.  Specifically, this policy protects the environment and the health and wellness of our citizens,” said Mayor Nutter.  

Although this may be one small step for the city parks, it’s a giant leap for sustainability in our city. The policy will be enforced by Philadelphia Park staff and public awareness campaigns, so we’ll have to wait and see if they can measure less butts in the park.

As we mentioned in our Philadelphia litter blog post, cigarette butts contribute to litter in our streets and parks. A non biodegradable substance, an estimated 1.69 billion pounds of butts end up as toxic trash, harming ground and water ecosystems. On top of the environmental angle, we don’t have to go into the additional dangers of smoking and overall city health in 2014, we hope.

Although Mayor Nutter’s Greenworks Plan has initiated many positive programs like TreePhilly and additional farmers markets, Philadelphia lacks game-changing environmental legislation. Without regulating plastic bags, styrofoam and other destructive products, Philadelphia continues to lag behind other cities like San Francisco, Seattle and New York.

Smaller steps like banning smoking in parks will hopefully spark other changes, continuing to bring awareness to our city’s trash and environmental concerns. Does this mean Philadelphians would need to try those handheld vaporizers now?

Readers, what do you think of the ban? How effective will it be?

Photo: Testing blog

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Julie Hancher is Editor-in-Chief of Green Philly, sharing her expertise of all things sustainable in the city of brotherly love. She enjoys long walks in the park with local beer and greening her travels, cooking & cat, Sir Floofus Drake. View all posts by Julie Hancher