How Cigarette Butts Pollute the Environment
But this has been known for some time.
This is from New Scientist from 2014:
Time to kick cigarette butts – they’re toxic trash
Poisons leach from the 4 trillion cigarette filters that we chuck each year, harming health and environment alike. They should be banned
25 June 2014By Thomas Novotny
(Image: Andrzej Krauze)
FOR the past two decades, the environmental group Ocean Conservancy has organised the annual International Coastal Cleanup. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers scour beaches all over the world, picking up trash. By far the most common item they pick up is cigarette butts. Last year they removed more than 2 million of them. Cigarette butts are also the most common item collected during urban litter surveys.
By one estimate, around two-thirds of the 6 trillion cigarettes smoked worldwide every year end up being dropped, flicked or dumped into the environment – around 750,000 tonnes in total.
Time to kick cigarette butts – they're toxic trash | New Scientist
And this is from the Guardian from 2015:
Why cigarette butts threaten to stub out marine life
With cigarette filters made up of tiny pieces of plastic capable of causing untold damage to marine life, banning them could be one answer
Hannah Gould
Tue 9 Jun 2015
Approximately 4.5tn of the 6tn cigarettes consumed annually are littered. Photograph: Eamonn McCabe
Atorn up love letter, a wedding dress and a loaded handgun. These are just some of the items discovered during the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup initiative (ICC). But these intriguing finds aside, year after year cigarette butts are the most commonly found form of ocean litter.
In 2014, ICC volunteers collected some 2m cigarette butts – a huge amount, but just the tip of the iceberg. Approximately 4.5tn of the 6tn cigarettes consumed annually are littered across the globe.
The majority of cigarette waste that ICC collects from beaches is the result of improper disposal. “Many people, even smokers, are not aware that the cigarette filter is comprised of thousands of little particles of plastic,” says Nicolas Mallos, director of Trash Free Seas Program at the Ocean Conservancy in Washington DC. “One solid filter ends up being thousands of tiny fibres that can be released into the marine environment.”
While we know cigarettes damage our bodies, we still don’t fully understand their health implications for our oceans, beyond that other forms of microplastics and microfibres pose a risk to marine organisms. A study from San Diego State University suggests one smoked cigarette butt in a single litre of water is sufficient to kill both marine and freshwater fish, although how this translates from the laboratory to an actual aquatic setting isn’t yet clear...
Why cigarette butts threaten to stub out marine life | Guardian Sustainable Business | The Guardian
This piece is from this week - and from the lead at Sidmouth Plastic Warriors:
My War on Cigarette Butts
Posted on July 18, 2018
With one of the driest Julys on record we have seen a problem in the town exposed to its full extent. Cigarette butts are everywhere. Clearly when it rains they normally get washed through the gutters, down the drains, and straight into the sea, but now they are just lying around waiting. I have been busy with my chalk (but have been asked not to do it any more during the summer months as it looks ‘unsightly’. I might be pedantic and say no more unsightly than the problem I’m highlighting, but if it’s got people talking then maybe I’ve done my job for now…
What a lot of people seem not to comprehend is not only dropping their fag butts on the ground littering, like any other littering, and it looks unsightly: it is also plastic pollution. “Many people, even smokers, are not aware that the cigarette filter is comprised of thousands of little particles of plastic,” says Nicolas Mallos, director of Trash Free Seas Program at the Ocean Conservancy in Washington DC. “One solid filter ends up being thousands of tiny fibres that can be released into the marine environment.” [The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/jun/09/why-cigarette-butts-threaten-to-stub-out-marine-life]
How do we get people to change their behaviour? For a start, offer a solution. At the places where the litter is most seen (by McColls in town is a hot spot – clearly workers from other shops nip round the corner for a cheeky fag on their break, and there is nowhere to put the butts so they get dropped). Putting a cigarette disposal bin on the wall right there seems an obvious solution, plus one in the market square by the benches, by any bus stops (managed for Stagecoach by EDDC), and all along the sea front, where soulful people stand and gaze wistfully out at the beautiful ocean, while dropping their fag butts on the ground to be blown directly on to the beach.
Obviously having the bins isn’t enough. They need to be emptied regularly and securely. The bins in the market square have disposal units built in to the top, but according to local shop owners the refuse parts of the bins are emptied without emptying the ashtray part on top, so as they are tilted sideways to gain access to the bin bag, the cigarette butts all fall out…this seems insane, almost criminal, to me.
Terracycle are now offering a free recycling service for cigarette detritus: “TerraCycle and JTI have partnered to create the Cigarette Waste Programme, a free recycling programme for cigarette waste. All the waste collected through the programme will be recycled into a variety of useful plastic products such as plastic lumber and boards that can be used for items ranging from construction holding, signage and table tops. Any remaining tobacco or paper will be recycled as compost – nothing will go to landfill.”[https://www.terracycle.co.uk/en-GB/brigades/cigarette-waste-brigade] So all we need to do is encourage the pubs, public at home and EDDC to collect them and we can send them from a central point, freepost. Signage and promotion of this will also highlight the pollution problems that people seem unaware of. I have passed this onto Chris Holland at Sidmouth Town Council to see if we can get it taken further. It seems a no brainer to me.
Dx
My War on Cigarette Butts – Sidmouth Plastic Warriors
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Atorn up love letter, a wedding dress and a loaded handgun. These are just some of the items discovered during the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup initiative (ICC). But these intriguing finds aside, year after year cigarette butts are the most commonly found form of ocean litter.
In 2014, ICC volunteers collected some 2m cigarette butts – a huge amount, but just the tip of the iceberg. Approximately 4.5tn of the 6tn cigarettes consumed annually are littered across the globe.
The majority of cigarette waste that ICC collects from beaches is the result of improper disposal. “Many people, even smokers, are not aware that the cigarette filter is comprised of thousands of little particles of plastic,” says Nicolas Mallos, director of Trash Free Seas Program at the Ocean Conservancy in Washington DC. “One solid filter ends up being thousands of tiny fibres that can be released into the marine environment.”
While we know cigarettes damage our bodies, we still don’t fully understand their health implications for our oceans, beyond that other forms of microplastics and microfibres pose a risk to marine organisms. A study from San Diego State University suggests one smoked cigarette butt in a single litre of water is sufficient to kill both marine and freshwater fish, although how this translates from the laboratory to an actual aquatic setting isn’t yet clear...
Why cigarette butts threaten to stub out marine life | Guardian Sustainable Business | The Guardian
This piece is from this week - and from the lead at Sidmouth Plastic Warriors:
My War on Cigarette Butts
Posted on July 18, 2018
What a lot of people seem not to comprehend is not only dropping their fag butts on the ground littering, like any other littering, and it looks unsightly: it is also plastic pollution. “Many people, even smokers, are not aware that the cigarette filter is comprised of thousands of little particles of plastic,” says Nicolas Mallos, director of Trash Free Seas Program at the Ocean Conservancy in Washington DC. “One solid filter ends up being thousands of tiny fibres that can be released into the marine environment.” [The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/jun/09/why-cigarette-butts-threaten-to-stub-out-marine-life]
Obviously having the bins isn’t enough. They need to be emptied regularly and securely. The bins in the market square have disposal units built in to the top, but according to local shop owners the refuse parts of the bins are emptied without emptying the ashtray part on top, so as they are tilted sideways to gain access to the bin bag, the cigarette butts all fall out…this seems insane, almost criminal, to me.
Dx
My War on Cigarette Butts – Sidmouth Plastic Warriors
.
.
.
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