Jump to full article: Cigarette Butt Pollution Project / Cigarette Butt Advisory Group (UCSD), 2009-11-09
Intro: Discarded cigarette butts (mainly the filter) are a form of non-biodegradable litter. Carried as runoff from streets to drains, to rivers, and ultimately to the ocean and its beaches, cigarette filters are the single most collected item each year in international beach cleanups. They are an environmental blight on streets, sidewalks, and other open areas. Rather than being a protective health device, cigarette filters are primarily a marketing tool to help sell ‘safe’ cigarettes. They are perceived by much of the public (especially current smokers) to reduce the health risks of smoking through technology. Filters have reduced the machine-measured yield of tar and nicotine from burning cigarettes, but there is controversy as to whether this has reduced the disease burden of smoking to the population. Filters actually may serve to sustain smoking by making it seem less urgent for smokers to quit and easier for children to initiate smoking because of reduced irritation from early experimentation.
Several options are available to reduce the environmental impact of cigarette filter waste, including:
* Developing biodegradable filters
* Increasing fines and penalties for littering butts
* Monetary deposits on filters
* Increasing availability of butt receptacles
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