For some reason many smokers think it’s okay to throw their trash, in the form of cigarette butts, on the ground.
It’s not okay to litter. Period.
Let’s look at the ugly side of cigarette butts.
In Santa Barbara County alone there are 41 tons of cigarette butts littered annually (that figure for the US is 88,000 tons).
For some reason many smokers think it’s okay to throw their trash, in the form of cigarette butts, on the ground.
When it rains that litter gets taken on a high-speed water slide. Gravity and water accelerate it’s trip… which ends on our beaches and in our oceans.
Eighty percent of littered cigarette butts end up in our waterways.
Cigarette butts are harmful in many ways. They pollute and harm aquatic ecosystems with chemicals, like arsenic and acetone. Cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate which is a plastic that can take decades to biodegrade. Littered cigarette butts contain more than 4,000 toxins and may be inundated with microbes.
Nasty.
On the flip side… check out these new slick cigarette butt recepticles that our Santa Barbara chapter recently partnered to install.
Great job Scott Bull and entire Santa Barbara chapter.
Read more from Jim Moriarty on his Ocean, Waves, and Beaches Blog.
