Iowa State will clean up its act today when a campuswide cigarette butt removal campaign gets underway.

“[Today] is the big day. We’re going to attack sites where we’ve had a collection of cigarette butts and clean up this campus,” said John Sluis, assistant director at the facilities and planning management department.

Sluis said the ISU campus has a big problem with cigarette butts littering the entryways to buildings. Today, 110 custodians and 25 groundskeepers will remove the cigarette butts. He said the cost of the removal will be in the thousands of dollars.

“We hate to spend money on this, but it must be done. If all the groundskeepers and custodians work for an hour cleaning up cigarette butts, it will cost over $4,000,” Sluis said.

Sluis said the cigarette butt problem began about two years ago when smoking was first prohibited inside campus buildings. He said smokers now smoke outside buildings, often in the entryways.

Monica Niemeier, a junior in psychology, said the cigarette butt problem stems from a lack of ashtrays around buildings.

“There just aren’t enough ashtrays on campus. I think smokers would use them if more were provided,” she said. “When there’s no ashtray around, it is time-consuming to go find a trash can, and these aren’t the best place to drop ashes anyway.”

Sluis said he understands.

“We’re sympathetic with the dilemma smokers face. We are working on a plan to add more ashtrays around campus,” he said.

The degree of the cigarette butt problem varies from building to building. Niemeier said Curtiss Hall is one of the biggest problem areas.

Sluis agreed both the west and east sides of Curtiss need to be cleaned. He also noted that the east and south sides of Parks Library are particularly cigarette-butt dense.

Sluis said public seating areas on campus were the focus of an earlier clean-up campaign. He said the plazas by Pearson Hall and Marston Hall were cleaned with some success.

“Once a space gets cleaned up, people are reluctant to mess it up again. Smokers don’t like to be the first to litter,” Sluis said.

Sluis said the cigarette butt clean-up will be a by-annual event in the future. It will be completed before Parent and Family Weekend and Veishea. “[The clean-up] must be done to make the Iowa State campus look good.”

Sluis offered this advice to ISU smokers: “Please, put your butt where it belongs.”