Cigarette Butts are Plastic

Cigarette filters are made from cellulose acetate , a type of plastic. There are about 12,000 thin fibers of this material in each filter. The purpose of the filter is to stop particulates and tobacco from entering the mouth. Depending on environmental conditions, a filter takes from 1-15 years to degrade.

Cigarette butts are the most common form of plastic litter on beaches. Like other types of plastic they make their way into the ocean and have been found in the stomachs of sea turtles, fish, birds, and whales. Not only are they ugly litter but the toxic residue in them is damaging to the animals.

I often see smokers casually flick their burning cigarette butts out of a car window or into an area where others are standing. I really do not understand how they can do this without giving it a second thought. It is litter, sometimes dangerous litter. Smokers who do this do not fully understand the damage they are doing. A friend of mine stopped throwing cigarette butts out as litter when he realized the impact it could have. He was at a stop light behind another car when he flicked his butt out of the window. It went straight up and fell on the car in front of him, landing on the driver’s side window ledge, still smoking. My friend was embarrassed and got out of his car, walked up to the other car, apologized, and picked up his cigarette butt. Hopefully, he stopped littering with his cigarettes.

Most cigarette litterers never look at what they are doing. Approximately 90,000 forest fires per year are started by tossed cigarettes. Cigarette induced fires cause hundreds of deaths in the U.S. each year. Children pick them up and put them in their mouths ingesting the toxic compounds in them. When my son was a toddler, I had to watch him like a hawk because he would pick up every cigarette butt he saw.

Billions of cigarette butts are carelessly throw out as litter everyday. They end up on our sidewalks, beaches, nature trails, gardens, and other public places. I found the butt in the photograph at Arches National Park at the North Window Arch, an iconic rock formation in the western U.S. How could someone be so disrespectful and careless? Seeing it motivated me to write this blog.