In the frenzy of refusing the plastic straw and replacing it with a metal or bamboo one, people have been forgetting the biggest contributor of litter: the cigarette butt.
The NBC News stated: “Cigarette butts have long been the single most collected item on the world’s beaches, with a total of more than 60 million collected over 32 years.”
An estimated 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered all over the world yearly and since the 1980s, these cigarette butts have been accountable for around 40% of all litter in coastal and urban litter clean-ups, according to Phys.
If you didn’t know, cigarettes are actually composed of cellulose acetate fibers, a type of bioplastic, which contaminate the world’s ecosystems even reaching as far as the bottom of the sea and will take years to disappear as specified by Science Direct.
Of course, it’s a given to know that the chemicals in the cigarette are toxic but don’t forget that even the discarded butts are still filled with the chemicals and leaving them on plants will only worsen our environmental problem.
Here’s a friendly reminder to properly dispose of your cigarettes! Please don’t leave them on the soil.
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