About 95% of cigarette filters are composed of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic which does not quickly degrade and can persist in the environment.(2) While cigarette litter may seem small, it adds up to a big impact on the places we live:
Challenging to a community’s quality of life.
Cigarette litter is unsightly. It accumulates in many places, gathering in corners, gutters, and outside doorways and bus shelters. Increasing amounts of litter in a business district and other signs of disorder create a sense that no one cares about the community.
Harmful to waterways and wildlife.
About 18% of litter, traveling primarily through storm water systems, ends up in local streams, rivers, and waterways. Cigarette litter can also poses a hazard to animals and marine life when they mistake filters for food.
Costly to residents and businesses.
Cigarette litter requires additional sidewalk and street sweeping, greenway and park maintenance, storm drain cleaning, and increased maintenance of storm water filters. Business owners also bear the expense of cigarette litter clean-up around their establishments including entrances, exits, and adjacent sidewalks and parking lots.
Cigarette Litter
Cigarette litter is a real challenge for communities across the U.S. Lack of awareness, lack of ash receptacles, and ordinances that move smokers outdoors all increase cigarette littering. Individuals who would never litter beverage cans or paper packaging typically do not consider tossing cigarette butts on the ground littering.
Dropping partially-smoked cigarettes, cigarette butts, matches, lighters, and packaging to the ground is littering. And it’s adding up. During the Ocean Conservancy's Annual International Coastal Cleanup, communities reported that cigarette butts were the most littered item—representing over 34% of the items collected.(1)
Cigarette Litter Attitudes and Behavior
Only 10% of cigarette butts are deposited in litter receptacles—the least likely item to be placed in a receptacle.(3) While cigarette litter can occur anywhere on walkways, parks, and other public spaces, most cigarette littering occurs in and around what are called “transition points.”
Transition points are areas where a smoker must extinguish a cigarette before proceeding, such as outside retail stores, hotels, office buildings, bus shelters, train platforms, and other areas where residents wait for transportation also tend to attract cigarette litter.
Because a cigarette butt is relatively small, many smokers discount its impact on the environment.(4) Cagarette Litter research in Australia found the following:
• Many smokers who do not properly dispose of their butts, lighting material, and packaging do not consider their behavior littering.
• Some smokers believe they are acting responsibly by dropping cigarettes on the ground and stepping on them to extinguish them.
• Smokers consider dropping butts into gutters or storm drains a safe way to extinguish a cigarette.(5)
Are Cigarette Butts Biodegradable?
Most cigarette filters are composed of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic. The white fibers you see in a cigarette filter are NOT cotton, but a plastic that can persist in the environment as long as other forms of plastic.
Various sources have stated that cigarette filters take 18 months to 10 years to degrade. It is safe to say that the cellulose acetate fibers in cigarette filters, like other plastics, are with us for some time after they are discarded. Since environments differ—some places are wetter, dryer, sunnier, colder, hotter, windy, etc.—so too will the degrading time differ. A cigarette butt that is littered in the Grand Canyon will degrade differently than one that is littered in South Carolina.
But even if cigarette filters were quick to degrade, we would still have fires caused by lit cigarette butts, and the toxins found in cigarette butts would still be harmful. That is why we believe the best way to decrease cigarette butt litter is to educate smokers, rather than try to make filters biodegradable.
What do we mean by "biodegradable?"
When we say "biodegrade," we are saying that something living, for example, bacteria, is responsible for "degrading" an item. There are many methods, however, that lead to something being "degraded." Sunlight, for example, can degrade some things. For example, sunlight can make some plastics brittle. Studies done on plastics in the oceans show that most plastics are broken-down by the UV waves of sunlight. Wind and water can cause erosion which is a form of degradation. Freezing and thawing can also physically change and breakdown items.
Degradable: susceptible to chemical breakdown.
Degrade: to break down a compound; to become degraded, weakened, deteriorate, to decompose. Biodegradable: capable of decaying through the action of living organisms. Photodegradable: capable of being broken down by light. Photodecomposition: The breaking down of molecules by radiant energy. Definitions from the Random House Dictionary, 2nd edition, Unabridged.
GREAT NEWS FROM KAB
Cigarette Litter Prevention Program Reports 54% Decrease in 2007
Five Years Later, Cigarette Litter Prevention Movement Continues To Have Major Impact
STAMFORD, Conn. (Nov. 19, 2007) —
Keep America Beautiful Inc. (KAB) reports this year that there has been an average nationwide reduction of cigarette litter of 54 percent a six percent improvement from 2006 in the communities implementing the KAB Cigarette Litter Prevention Program (CLPP). Some communities reported as much as a 65 percent reduction in cigarette litter in their hometown. The nation’s largest program to combat cigarette-related litter seeks to educate adult smokers about the issue while offering access to pocket ashtrays and ash receptacles as a way to combat one of the most overlooked environmental problems.
“Cigarette butts are the most littered item across the U.S., despite most peoples’ perceptions,” said G. Raymond Empson, president of Keep America Beautiful. “A lack of awareness, lack of ash receptacles, and ordinances that move smokers outdoors, all increase cigarette littering and make it a real challenge to keep our nation clean and beautiful. We’re doing something about that.”
The program, in its fifth year, has been implemented in over 150 locations throughout the U.S. It sends hundreds of volunteers into the streets to collect and count cigarette butts. They then document improvements after the program has been implemented. The 2007 campaign occurred over a seven-month period beginning in May and ending in November. Each local affiliate reported results to the national organization after two to three cigarette litter “scans” that provided progress metrics for each community.
Public education is a major component of this initiative since individuals who would never litter such items as beverage cans or paper packaging typically do not consider tossing cigarette butts on the ground “littering.” Through research, Keep America Beautiful found that this action occurs most often at transition points areas where a person must stop smoking before proceeding into another area. These include bus stops, entrances to stores and public buildings, and walkways leading to government facilities, among others.
“We are elated to see a big reduction this year and each year the program is implemented,” said Empson. “Our goal is to expand the Cigarette Litter Prevention Program to every U.S. community, making a major impact in the battle to curb litter throughout America.”
Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s largest “cleaning and greening” network, made famous for its “Crying Indian” ad from the 1970s, has refined the Cigarette Litter Prevention Program for the last five years with the help of funding from Philip Morris USA. The program’s strategic approach involves all stakeholders in the cigarette litter problem, including businesses, law enforcement, local governments, community groups and smokers themselves.
About Keep America Beautiful, Inc.
Keep America Beautiful, Inc., established in 1953, is the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action and education organization. With a network of nearly 1,000 affiliate and participating organizations, Keep America Beautiful forms public-private partnerships and programs that engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community environments. For additional information, visit www.kab.org. Information about starting and maintaining a Cigarette Litter Prevention Program in your community can be found in the online “Guide to Cigarette Litter Prevention.” The Guide can be accessed through the Keep America Beautiful Web site www.kab.org or directly at http://www.preventcigarettelitter.org/.
