The Butts Remain
Everyone knows that smoking is bad for your health. Turns out it’s not so good for the health of the planet, either. Cigarettes might go up in smoke but the butts remain and account for 1.7 billion pounds of non-biodegradable trash.
According to ButtsOut, cigarette butt litter is the world’s greatest environmental litter problem with approx 4.3 trillion cigarette butts tossed onto roads, pavements, beaches, parks, forests and in waterways every year.
Further breakdown indicates that smokers in the U.S. account for over 250 billion cigarette butts, those in the UK account for 200 tons of butts, and Australian smokers litter over 7 billion cigarette butts annually. In fact, in most Western countries cigarette butt litter accounts for around 50% of all litter.
And it’s gotten worse since governments around the world started implementing indoor smoking bans. In America, while cigarette smoking has decreased 28%, smokers are increasingly dropping cigarette butts on the ground, in planters, and throwing them into the waterway. Why? Probably due to a combined lack of awareness and lack of proper cigarette receptacles.
This year, the World Health Organization’s No Tobacco Day on May 31st is focusing on health warnings on tobacco product packaging as a way of encouraging smokers to quit. But perhaps instead they should be focusing on educating smokers about the damage that butt litter causes to the environment. Maybe if they realized that it takes over 25 years for cigarette butts to decompose and that they poison our waterways and kill marine life, they would stop simply throwing butts away.
Image: weegeebored
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8 Comments
May 27th, 2009 at 6:23 am
In the 1990s my hometown of Sydney started marking its stormwater drains with stencil paintings saying “this drain leads to Sydney Harbour” or “this drain leads to Botany Bay” (as appropriate).
Caitlin’s last blog post..Swimming with the turtles
May 27th, 2009 at 10:25 am
As an ex smoker and girlfriend of a current smoker, I’m always conscientious of cigarette butts. My boyfriend is even more picky about where they go, and is quick to remind point out a trash can if he sees someone toss theirs on the ground.
With eco consciousness becoming the cool thing to follow, it might make a difference to remind smokers that their butts aren’t biodegradable. It won’t necessarily get them to quit (and shouldn’t – it’s a valid personal choice) but maybe it will help them remember to be more conscious of what they smoke and where they toss their filters.
Jennifer Nicole’s last blog post..What About Wednesday?
May 29th, 2009 at 7:21 am
maybe i’m missing the forest for the trees here, but i’m noticing a couple of problems here.
first, you’re pulling your numbers from websites & organizations that are organized around stopping smoking? no doubt all of the facts from buttout and preventcigarettelitter.org, then, are completely accurate and don’t represent any pandering, distortion, or twisting of facts to further a particular outcome. people shouldn’t cite to wikipedia, much less an activist group, when it comes to putting a spine in your argument.
second, i’m not seeing where on the preventcigarettelitter.org site where it says cigarette littering is increasing. i see the 28% drop in people smoking, but the website follows that by saying that cigarettes are still the number one most littered item in the united states. just because less people are smoking doesn’t mean that more cigarettes are being flicked into the street by remaining smokers. i think the mistake made here is that the author concluded that the number of butts in planters and gutters must be a fixed number in order to remain at the #1 most-littered-item spot.
perhaps we should consider that, much like smoking itself, littering is on the decline as americans as a whole have been taking a more active role in keeping their neighborhoods and communities clean. you see, if 28% less people are smoking now, but also 28% less people are littering, cigarette butts will probably stay atop the garbage heap.
i agree with the thrust of this blog; people probably should quit smoking regardless of what they do with their butts, and certainly shouldn’t be throwing butts into storm drains and planter boxes. however, using one-sided references and making questionable conclusions isn’t the best way to present the issue.
May 29th, 2009 at 10:36 am
James, thanks for your perspective. We can always improve and your criticism is constructive. Have a good weekend.
May 29th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Who out there at Etsy can design Butt art or clothing?
May 29th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
I smoked for more than 10 years and now I’ve completely stopped smoking normal cigarettes and made the switch to electronic ones. I can breathe easier, no longer cough and no longer have a gross coated throat.
After searching online for various companies and researching prices, I decided to buy from http://www.FreshSmoking.com . They’ve got the best prices, their starter kits are only $49.95 and the rest of their accessories and cartridges are much cheaper than any I’ve seen. Also, their customer service was amazing and I received my order lightening fast. I highly recommend them.
May 29th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
I’m not sure where you got your statistic that it takes 35 years for a cigarette butt to decompose…
If we look at the composition of a cigarette:
- Paper Tube : Made from paper : is biodegradable.
- Tobacco : Plant material : is biodegradable.
- Fiber filter : Made from wood pulp (Cellulose acetate) : is biodegradable.
Now, the filter fibers are held together with something called triacetin plasticizer, which is a firming agent. This also however is biodegradable.
Issues may present due to environmental factors such as lack of moisture, or sever cold. However, any environmental factors slowing the decomposition of a cigarette filter will also slow the decomposition of any other biodegradable product.
May 30th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
@Nick Lots of things are biodegradable but it doesn’t mean they all decompose at a regular rate. It takes longer for a cotton t-shirt to decompose than an apple core, for example.
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