Cigarette butts are widely considered to be the world’s number one litter problem. Cleanup projects at beaches gather twice as many cigarette parts as either food wrappers or beverage containers. New York State produces about 1.5 million tons of cigarette butts each year. In Texas, butts account for 13% of all highway litter to the tune of 130 million butts per year.
The bulk of the problem is that many smokers who wouldn’t dream of throwing their food wrappers or drink cups out the window think nothing of dropping their cigarette butts on the ground wherever they are.
Apart from being a general blight on the landscape, cigarette butts contain filters that are made from wood-based plastic fibers that can take many decades to fully decompose. They can leach nicotine and tar into the ground or water. Furthermore, they are often eaten by birds, fish, and other animals who can choke on them or be harmed by the poisons in them.
There are now several companies who are working to collect and recycle cigarette butts, by turning them into a variety of useful products. TerraCycle, for example, turns cigarette butts into a kind of plastic lumber, which can be used to make benches, pallets and other structures. EcoTech Displays is developing a recycling process to turn butts into insulation, clothing, and even jewelry.
Governments are trying to combat the problem as well, by increasing the level of enforcement of littering laws and by imposing extra taxes on cigarettes to help defray the cost of cleanup. Cigarette butts are a problem we need to solve.
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Watch: Cigarette Butts, World’s #1 Litter, Recycled as Park Benches
Photo, posted September 11, 2008, courtesy of Clyde Tombaugh via Flickr.
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Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.