Cigarette - Cigarette Litter

Cigarette Litter

Cigarette filters are made from cellulose acetate and are biodegradable, though depending on environmental conditions they can be resistant to degradation. Accordingly, the duration of the degradation process is cited as taking as little as one month to three years to as long as 10 to 15 years. One campaign group has suggested they are never fully biodegraded.

This variance in rate and resistance to biodegradation in many conditions is a factor in littering and environmental damage. It is estimated that 4.5 trillion cigarette butts become litter every year. In the 2006 International Coastal Cleanup, cigarettes and cigarette butts constituted 24.7 percent of the total collected pieces of garbage, over twice as many as any other category.

Cigarette butts contain the chemicals filtered from cigarettes and can leach into waterways and water supplies. The toxicity of used cigarette butts depends on the brand design because cigarette companies incorporate varying degrees of chemicals in their tobacco blends. After a cigarette is smoked, the butt is capable of retaining some of the chemicals, and parts of them are carcinogenic. The results of one study indicate that the chemicals released into freshwater environments from cigarette butts are lethal to daphnia at concentrations of 0.125 cigarette butts per liter (or one cigarette butt per 2 gallons of water).

Cellulose acetate and carbon particles breathed in from cigarette filters is suspected of causing lung damage.

Smoldering cigarette butts have also been blamed for triggering fires from residential fires to major wildfires and bushfires which have caused major property damage and also death as well as disruption to services by triggering alarms and warning systems.

Many governments have sanctioned stiff penalties for littering of cigarette butts; the U.S. state of Washington imposes a penalty of $1025.

Cigarette butts are one of the most commonly found litters on the street. Most high-rise littering also relates to cigarette butts. There are several options that may help reduce the environmental impact that cigarette butts cause. This includes developing biodegradable filters, increasing fines and penalties for littering butts, implementing monetary deposits on filters, increasing the availability of butt receptacles, and expanding public education. It may even be possible to ban the sale of filtered cigarettes altogether on the basis of their adverse environmental impact.