Here are things you can typically count on when you visit Florida's beaches: Sand, shells and — ugh — cigarette butts.

Even though the number of people who smoke has shrunk dramatically in the last two decades, there never seems to be a shortage of cigarette butts at the beach.

Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, believes he has a solution to that nasty byproduct of what many consider a nasty habit to begin with. Ban smoking on Florida's beaches.

Violators would be fined $25 or forced to perform 10 hours of community service, according to Gruters' proposal.

Cigarette butts have been a beach problem nearly as long as filtered cigarettes have been around. The core of most cigarette filters, the part that looks like white cotton, is actually a form of plastic called cellulose acetate, which is extremely slow to degrade.

It can take 18 months to 10 years for a cigarette filter to decompose. And there are other problems: Used cigarette filters also contain toxins, which can seep into the ground and waterways, and can also be consumed by wildlife.

"They're just nasty," said Tony Sasso, executive director of Keep Brevard Beautiful, an organization that organizes numerous beach clean ups on the Space Coast and is very familiar with the plague of discarded cigarette butts.

It's the No. 1 single item volunteers pick up when they do beach clean up, Sasso said.

Several years ago, as a member of the Council Beach City Council, Sasso helped lead a citywide referendum to ban smoking on the city's beaches. The 2006 referendum failed by narrow margin.

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He's not sure how successful Gruters' effort would would be in Tallahassee but Sasso said "I would love to not see all those butts on the beach."

Others are supportive of the goal, but maybe not Gruters' strategy of passing a one-size, fits all state law. In other words, close but no cigar.

"If it is for state park beaches, OK," said Cocoa Beach Mayor Ben Malik. "Let coastal communities decide themselves and support home rule."

Michael Sjuggerud, a board certified real estate attorney, and surfer, who lives in Cocoa Beach, tends to agree with Malik. Sjuggerud is against smoking and has written about supporting smoke-free residential communities but thinks efforts to ban smoking on beaches, and establishing penalties, should be left to towns and cities, not necessarily lawmakers in Tallahassee.

"I wouldn't shed any tears if the state banned smoking on beaches," Sjuggerud said. "But does a one-size-fit-all law for the state of Florida with this really make sense?"

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Contact Price at 321-242-3658 or wprice@floridatoday.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @Fla2dayBiz