Plastic Pollution – Butting in on Cigarette Waste
by Judith S. Weis
In recent decades, there has been increasing attention devoted to plastic pollution in the oceans. Plastics are everywhere in the marine environment worldwide and are killing and maiming marine animals. Reports of whales beaching themselves and dying with their stomachs full of plastic bags, or dead sea turtles full of plastic bags, or various marine animals entangled in plastic ropes from fishing gear, or sea turtles with straws in their noses abound. Bills banning single use plastic bags or Styrofoam have been passed in many countries as well as some states and municipalities in the US.
The Ocean Conservancy sponsors an international beach cleanup every September. This clean-up not only rids the beaches (temporarily) of trash, but volunteers collect data on what items they pick up and how many, so the Ocean Conservancy can know if things are improving or not, and which items are the most abundant around the world. Can you guess which items are most abundant?
Not bottles or straws or plastic bags, but cigarette butts. 2.3 million butts are littered around the world every minute (though not all on beaches). You’d think with fewer people smoking this kind of pollution would be decreasing but following laws that prohibited smoking in offices, people now go outside to smoke and drop the butts on the sidewalk, from which they can wash down the storm drain and into the water.
Cigarette filters are made of plastic, so they pose the same risks as other kinds of plastics, but the little pieces are more likely to get eaten by smaller animals. Furthermore, in addition to the plastic itself, the filters are loaded with carcinogens and other toxic chemicals that they absorbed from the tobacco to keep the chemicals out of the lungs of smokers. Once in the water, these chemicals are available and toxic marine life. One smoked cigarette butt in one liter (about a quart) of water is enough to kill fish.
There many butts on beaches because smokers stick them in the sand when they are finished. Some beaches provide containers for the butts, but not enough people use them, probably more out of ignorance than ill-will. Educational materials about cigarette butts should be posted at beaches, just like signs encouraging dog owners to pick up after their dogs.
In addition to educating individual smokers, some organizations (the TerraMar project and Oceanic Global) are focusing on the coastal tourism industry for wider impact, including proper recycling of cigarette butts. They are promoting a #NoMoreButts campaign as well as The Oceanic Standard, a toolkit for providing recycling solutions for coastal businesses. #NoMoreButts provides customizable curbside recycling receptacles, sealed pocket ashtrays, and access to rare recycling facilities that can break down cigarette butts that otherwise end up in landfills and the oceans.
The TerraMar project is coordinating businesses with sustainable vendors and is providing free educational posters and shipping labels for businesses to send back their collected cigarette butts to be properly discarded. In turn, the Oceanic Standard toolkit, created by Oceanic Global Foundation, provides marketing incentives and insight into additional sustainable practices.
Let’s hope East End businesses get involved with these efforts.
