08/10/2023
Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world, with 4.5 trillion butts littered every year—that’s 1.69 billion pounds (845,000 tons) of toxic plastic.
Why cigarette butt litter is so harmful:
- Cigarette butts leach toxic chemicals like arsenic and ni****ne, and heavy metals like lead, cadmium, chromium, and mercury into the water and soil.
- Ni****ne has been shown to be lethal to species of fish, crustaceans, zooplankton, and other aquatic organisms, as well as being a known insecticide.
- Cigarette butts present an ingestion, choking and poisoning hazard to wildlife that mistake them for food.
- Butts found on the beach weren't necessarily littered there - ci******es dropped on sidewalks or thrown from moving cars can, and do, make their way to the ocean.
- Cigarette filters are composed of cellulose acetate, a synthetic plastic fiber that breaks down into microplastics and never fully biodegrades. Plastics of this sort have been found in the stomachs of sea turtles, fish, birds, whales and other marine creatures.
- A San Diego State University study found that one cigarette butt can kill half of the fish in 1 liter of water.
Littering cigarette butts is also illegal and punishable by fine.
