Smokers: Let's be friends

Although the task of eliminating litter seems daunting, it is possible and I believe we can eliminate it faster if we focus first on cigarette butt litter. I appeal to our smoking friends. Let's become allies. We need your help. Litter prevention is literally in your hands!

There are all kinds of ramifications of littering as we wrote about in a previous post, 10 Reasons to care about litter, yet cigarette butts are still the #1 littered item worldwide. It's estimated 4.5 TRILLION cigarette butts are littered worldwide each year.  Litter clean up costs the U.S. more than $11.5 BILLION annually. Cigarette butts are so numerous they are not picked up or counted during most litter cleanups programs.    Bill Nye, the Science Guy, says they’re the “worlds single biggest litter problem.” 

 

Many smokers don't think cigarette butts are litter. I know many who flick their butt would never consider throwing anything else out the window or on the ground. First we all we need to be on the same page:

 

Cigarette butts ARE litter.  TOXIC litter. 

 

Many smokers believe cigarette butts are biodegradable.  That might have been true when filters were made from cotton, but they are now made from plastic  (cellulose acetate), and filled with carcinogenic chemicals. The filter contains acetone, ammonia, arsenic, benzene, benzoapyrene, butane, cadmium, formaldehyde and lead. This is not even considering the chemicals in the tobacco, paper, side glue or dye used to imprint logo.

 

Cigarette litter ends up in the ocean. No matter where it was flicked, tossed or pitched, cigarette butt litter ends up in the ocean. From sidewalks to storm drains, streams to rivers, the butts enter our waters eventually washing down to our beaches and oceans.

 

Cigarette butt litter KILLS wildlife and is toxic to the environment. Cigarette butts and filters, have been found in the stomachs of fish, birds , turtles and whales , who mistake them for food. They ingest but cannot digest the butts and die. The butts that are not eaten leach toxins in the water making it deadly to most smaller aquatic life. Toxins released from one cigarette butt left in a gallon of water for one day will kill about 80 percent of aquatic life added to that water.

 

Cigarette butts are *invisible*. If we could eliminate this most prolific, yet invisible form of deadly litter, it would be easier to work together to eliminate the more visiible and unsightly forms of litter. 

Smokers, knowing the facts, I sincerely hope you will accept this invitation to help prevent the “worlds single biggest litter problem”.

If you do, you will need to plan ahead to figure out where you will dispose of that butt when there is no garbage can available.  Where will you put your extinguished butt when you're driving or hiking or walking into a shop and there is no trash can around? My mother used to keep a container in the car filled with baking soda to extinguish her butts. It safely put it out and eliminated the odor at the same time.

 

Smokers: what are your thoughts? Can we work on this together?