About 200 volunteers picked up 22,800 cigarette butts and 350 kilograms (roughly 770 pounds) of trash at Playa Conalep in Ensenada on May 29. The cleanup was part of Colillatón 2026, the city’s fifth annual event timed to World No Tobacco Day on May 31.
Ensenada’s municipal government organized the effort under Mayor Claudia Agatón Muñoz. Several state agencies participated, including Baja California’s Institute of Psychiatry and the state environment ministry. The city’s ecology office coordinated logistics on the ground.
Students Join the Effort
Students from two technical schools played a major role in the cleanup. CBTIS 41, a federal technical high school, and Conalep, the vocational campus that gives the beach its name, both sent groups to participate. Playa Conalep sits along Ensenada’s urban coastline, a stretch popular with local residents and visitors alike.
The name “Colillatón” is a play on “colilla,” the Spanish word for cigarette butt, combined with the suffix used for large community events. The event has grown into one of Ensenada’s signature environmental campaigns since its launch in 2022.
Why Cigarette Butts Matter for Coastal Health
Cigarette butts are consistently ranked as the most common item found during beach cleanups worldwide. Their cellulose acetate filters do not biodegrade and can take up to 10 years to break down. During that time, they leach nicotine, heavy metals, and other toxic chemicals into sand and seawater, posing a direct threat to marine organisms.
Previous cleanup efforts along Ensenada’s coast have confirmed the pattern. A 2018 campaign organized by Terra Peninsular across multiple Baja California beach sites found that cigarette butts topped the list of collected debris, alongside glass and plastic bottles.
Pre-Summer Timing
The late May date positions the cleanup just ahead of Ensenada’s busy summer beach season, when foot traffic along the coast increases sharply. The city has used the annual Colillatón as both an environmental action and a public awareness campaign about tobacco waste.
This story was first reported by Jornada BC.