Plastic in Cigarettes

Did you know that there is plastic in cigarettes?

Cigarette butts are a huge source of plastic pollution and are possibly the most littered item on earth.

“Around 4.5 trillion cigarettes are discarded each year worldwide“

Cigarette filters are made of a type of plastic called “cellulose acetate” and this type of plastic can take up to 10 years to break down. In other words, it takes a very long time for them to disappear once they have been thrown away.

Over 90% of cigarettes that are made contain plastic filters, that’s more than one million tonnes of plastic.

However, people still consider it normal to throw a cigarette butt on the ground. As a result of this, they go into drains, rivers and oceans.

Why is this a problem?

Cigarette butts take nine months to break down under perfect conditions and those conditions are rare.

Cigarette Butts last a long time in the ocean and they wash up still intact.

Cigarettes contain a lot of bad chemicals in cigarettes and these leak into the ocean, poisoning sea creatures.

Consider this :

A recent study placed fish in water in which cigarette butts had been soaked and removed. After four days, half the fish had died, showing that cigarette butts “seep in into the aquatic environment and are toxic and deadly to living creatures,”

Thomas Novotny, emeritus professor of global health at San Diego State University

Is this a problem locally?

How long do you think it took to collect these cigarette butts?

We collected these in one short trip to Mudeford Quay, from around the benches and on the green.

What do you think the impact might be on the birds, fish and other animals that are around the quay?

Animals and birds mistake litter for food and nesting materials, therefore hurting themselves and their environment.

Have a look at the article linked below, it has a photograph of a seagull with a cigarette. People already think they are a nuisance, do you want to see them smoking as well?!

Find out more

You can read this article from CNN about the problem of cigarette butts, it goes in to more detail

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/01/24/health/dirty-truth-about-cigarette-filters/index.html

What can I do?

This is a difficult one to advise on, it’s not up to us to tell you to stop smoking! However, if you do smoke, please make sure that you are disposing of your butts properly and not dropping them on the street.

We saw a post in a Plastic Free Group on Facebook about eco-friendly cigarettes so there are ideas out there. This doesn’t stop the chemical problem, but it does help with the plastic problem. Have a look at this link for Smokey Treats.

You can buy cigarette pouches and pocket ashtrays online to help you dispose of butts when you’re out and about.