Joe and I have decided to do our project on littering and pollution and its affect on our environment, especially the oceans. Regarding this, I've found
this awesome article from the New York Times that really illustrates the severity of this issue by focusing on one of the main culprits of individual pollution: cigar, cigarettes, and cigarette butts.
The problem begins psychologically. For some reason cigarette butts, unlike other forms of litter, are different in a smoker's mind. Throwing a cigarette to the ground and crushing it under your heel seems to make more sense in the moment and be more permissible than throwing a plastic bag or a candy wrapper on the ground. The article outlines that this could be remedied if more receptacles for cigarettes were created or if littering laws were better enforced.
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Wildlife often ingest discarded cigarette butts,
causing illness and sometimes death. |
Besides being a huge eyesore and adding the city maintenance costs, cigarette butt littering is a massive environmental problem. According to the article, cigarette butts make up 28% of all litter that washes up on beaches worldwide. That's huge. Cigarettes contain many chemicals, including nicotine, that are extremely harmful to wildlife. A standard test of a substances' toxicity is to measure how many fish the substance kills within a liter of water. The article cites a study that found one cigarette butt had enough toxins to kill half the minnows in a litter of water in only 96 hours. That's only one cigarette butt. Imagine what the consequences are for the actual amount of cigarette litter that pollute the oceans.
There are some companies trying to combat this, by creating biodegradable cigarette filters. So far, these are not widely distributed if they're even available at all. Stricter laws are being put in place to ban cigarette smoking on beaches and near water, which is a good sign.
Hopefully we'll be able to find some more research on prevenative measures, but that's all for now.
Write to you soon.
Danielle K.
