I am excited to congratulate Holliday Lake State Park, as they have received the Virginia Green Travel All-Star Award. This award is credited to the park’s Education Support Specialist Meggan Saul for a unique and effective cigarette butt cleanup and recycling program.

Recycling and reusing items help eliminate excess waste that hurt the environment and the wildlife. Thanks to this new education program that focuses on recycling trash, mainly cigarette butts, the park stays clean which enhances the guest’s experience when they visit.

Meggan received the award at the 10th annual Virginia Green Travel Conference that was held March 21-22 in Virginia Beach.

What is Virginia Green?

Virginia Green is the state’s recognition program that recognizes tourism partners that have self-certified their environmental efforts. Virginia Green consists of a network of tourism-related organizations that are committed to protecting the environment while promoting responsible tourism. The program is supported by the Virginia Tourism Corporation, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Virginia State Parks and the Virginia Restaurant Lodging & Travel Association.

The Virginia Green Travel Alliance (VGTA) is the 501c3 non-profit organization that was created in 2014 to support and expand the outreach efforts of the state’s Virginia Green program and sustainable tourism efforts statewide. This is beneficial to the parks as this network helps support environmental initiatives and policies that help to make Virginia and its tourism industry more sustainable.

The All-Star Travel award recognizes individuals who go above and beyond when it comes to environment quality. The VGTA works to support, promote, and continuously educate the certified partners as they seek to continuously improve their environmental programs.

Cigarette Butt Recycling Program

Virginia State Park staff work hard at coming up with new and interesting yearly interpretive program for the parks. One topic has been very popular, and that is recycling. Meggan Saul got creative and knew that with the combination of educating the public, cleaning up trash and recycling cigarette butts, would have a huge positive impact on the park and even the planet.

“The cigarette butt recycling program is a new program that started last summer and has really taken off,” said Holliday Lake Education Support Specialist Meggan Saul. “This program was created solely out of curiosity. I wanted to figure out a way to recycle a common littered item that we already didn’t have a program for. I wanted to recycle the cigarette butts and explain to the public the importance of not littering.”

Holliday Lake State Park Manager Anne Reeder nominated Meggan for this award not only because the program was her idea, but due to the passion and persistence Meggan has for all environmental programs.

“Meggan really is the All-Star,” said Reeder. “She spends a lot of time educating the public about the importance of recycling and cleaning up the park, especially during National Public Lands Day. She spent a lot of time picking up trash off the ground as well as emptying the cigarette butt containers. She knew that between the cigarette butts found in the cigarette butt containers, along with the ones found on the ground, it would be worth it to turn that trash into something else. It can take years for certain materials to break down, and with the help of dedicated staff like Meggan educating the public and working with the recycling organizations, we can help eliminate waste and even recycle most of it.”

Meggan found a company that helps support the idea of eliminating waste and was happy to help her recycle the cigarette butts. She reached out to TerraCycle to learn more about its cigarette waste recycling program.

“Meggan took it upon herself to research the companies that will take the park’s trash and actually recycle it,” said Reeder. “TerraCycle was the best option that she found and so she partnered with them to recycle the cigarette butts. When she sent the first package off to Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, it totaled 3 pounds. We are so very happy and proud to have this cigarette butt recycling program at Holliday Lake State Park as it helps eliminate the park’s trash and eradicates waste on the planet.”

Over consumption, along with a throwaway culture, has led to a global waste crisis. Most materials are not profitable to recycle and so this leads to waste piling up in landfills and polluting our Earth. Instead of using new materials to create products, TerraCycle focuses on recycling waste and turning it into something useful.

Park staff hope to bring more of these programs to the park and have various people from recycling companies come out to the park and talk to guests about the importance of recycling and keeping the planet clean.

“This program is important for our park as well as our community for the simple reason of showing that something as small as a cigarette butt can be recycled and made into something else that can be used,” said Saul.

How Can You Help?

It’s so easy to help recycle and eliminate trash. Just by recycling what you use and even picking up one piece of trash or litter and placing it in the right receptacle is very helpful in eliminating excess waste. Another helpful conservation tip is to carry your own reusable cutlery utensils to avoid unnecessary plastic waste. Plastic utensils can only be used once and take hundreds of years to breakdown, thus creating more waste and hazards to the environment and to wildlife.

You can volunteer at any of our 41 Virginia State Park locations and help keep them clean and efficient. Most parks have a Friends Group that supports the park in many ways. Holliday Lake is lucky to have an active group of volunteers. The Friends of Holliday Lake State Park is a hands-on volunteer organization dedicated to preserving and supporting the park. This group, along with the Camp Hosts, empty the aluminum bins and take the cans to a recycling facility. The funds received go towards to Holliday Lake State Park programs and events.

You can join and support the Virginia Green Travel Alliance in several ways. You can become a Certified Virginia Green Travel Partner, become a Virginia Green Supplier, join the alliance as a Supporting Organization or become a Virginia Green Travel Champion. Learn more about Virginia Green here.