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Last Updated on November 14, 2019 by
Title Cigarette Butts & the Environment | An Infographic
In this infographic, the impact of cigarette butts on the environment is analyzed. Cigarettes are the number one littered item in the world. Find out more now.
Overall littering is down but people still seem to be carefree about throwing away cigarette butts. As outlined in this infographic from purplebox, they are often unaware of the devastating impact their actions have on the environment.
Over 4.5 trillion cigarettes are littered worldwide every year and it is having a devastating effect on our waters. 80% of the butts we throw on the floor end up in our water systems. People seem to think that a small cigarette butt won’t have much of an impact but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Many smokers have developed a bad habit of “tossing their butt” rather than finding an appropriate place to dispose of the butt and this only adds to the problem.
The amount of marine life this affected by these actions is staggering. The plastic of cigarettes is a real killer and for example, sea turtles often mistake the plastic for small jellyfish. Another interesting study found that 90% of albatross chicks had plastic bits in their gullet.
There have been creative techniques in big cities around the world to encourage people to stop littering cigarettes butts. While more ash receptacles do help, creative techniques have also proven very effective. For example, in Sydney there is a huge problem and the ‘Yuk’ campaign collected cigarettes butts to remind people just how many were being collected on a daily basis.
If you do smoke, it’s vital that you don’t throw the butts on the street. You wouldn’t litter larger items so why litter cigarette butts? In fact, throwing away larger items would have much less of an impact on the environment. Find out everything you need to know about cigarette butt litter and its effect on the environment below.
Check out the purplebox infographic below. Right Click to save the graphic
