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Virginia State Park Essay

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Virginia is a great state full beautiful landscapes, incredible lakes, and amazing recreational sites. One of the best places to visit in Virginia is its state parks. There are 36 State Parks in Virginia, all of which are different. Those who frequent the parks bring their family, friends, and love ones to be amongst the foliage and appreciate the wildlife that make its homes within its environment. Visitors can fish, play games, host celebrations, and even prepare food; but with all of that activity there are bound to be issues that can arise. One of the biggest issues that can be created by visitors is litter. According the Department of Health (11 Litter, 2010), “Litter is any kind of rubbish dropped on the ground by people when they are …show more content…

It is not uncommon to see some visitors using tobacco products such as cigarettes and cigars while they visit the parks. Many of these visitors who smoke, tend to toss out their cigarette butts without a care. They assume that it’s small therefore harmless. (See Figure 1 on page 2). Other common assumptions are that it will burn out on its own or that park maintenance crews will collect them at some point. Additionally, many smokers incorrectly believe that cigarette butts are not litter at all. But on the contrary they can be quite harmful to the environment. According to Luther King, (King, 2013) most Cigarette butts are made of cellulose acetate which could take more than 10 years to disintegrate.” Cellulose Acetate is a form of plastic found in cigarette filters that can contaminate soil and waterways, it can even harm and kill living organisms. Moreover, if left to decay it can degrade the surrounding eco systems (Moss, 2009). Ten years is a very long time to wait for something to break down on its own. Many people will even bypass the ash receptacles that can be found throughout the park choosing to flick them onto the ground or in waterways. Putting the lives of other park visitors as risk as well as the lives of local

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