What is the extent of the problem?
UNEP, the United Nations Environmental Programme, has calculated that worldwide this involves some 4.5 trillion (4,500 billion!) cigarette butts which end up in the environment annually.
Of all the various types of litter, cigarette butts are the most common. Research shows that butts make up 41% of the litter in the Netherlands. That is around 10 billion cigarette butts a year, which is the equivalent of 10,000 tons of rubbish.
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How harmful are cigarette butts to the environment?
They look small and innocent, but cigarette butts are persistent litter full of toxins. Cigarette filters are far from bio-degradable. The filter material is made from cellulose acetate (a sort of foam plastic) which breaks down in the ocean into minuscule fragments which end up in the stomachs of fish, birds and marine mammals.
No fewer than 4,200 chemical breakdown products have been found in butts. These substances include herbicides, fungicides and insecticides: all products which are used in the cultivation of tobacco.
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