These days, most people are aware of the dangers that smoking presents to an individual’s health. The packs themselves carry warnings and anti-smoking campaigns are all over television, public transportation and billboards.
Cigarettes have received a great amount of negative attention over the years, mainly due to tobacco products causing over 400,000 deaths in this country each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet people choose to continue smoking. We at BecauseAction are not here to judge or condemn smokers, but we are here to advocate for another decision smokers make.
With every cigarette they finish, the smoker makes a choice. Do they put it out and throw it in the nearest garbage can, or do they toss it on the ground?
Before we go any further, we're going to give our readers a quick pop quiz.
True or False: Cigarettes are biodegradable.
If you guessed False, you’re right!
Cigarette butts, which are made of cellulose acetate, paper and the end of the cigarette’s tobacco are not, in fact, biodegradable. Cellulose acetate is a thermoplastic polymer. This basically means that it is a synthetic fiber, based on cellulose (plant-based) pulp that is processed into a plastic.
Now it's time for a quick bio-chem lesson.
All plastics begin with an organic material base, which could be petroleum, natural gas, wood pulp, or even fibers from plants like corn. These organic molecules are treated with a catalyst to aid a chemical reaction that forms a polymer chain (a chain of many molecules bound together). In this case, the catalyst is called acetic anhydride, and the resulting product is acetate flake. The flake is formed into tiny fibers, called cellulose acetate tow, and then manufactured into recognizable products, such as cigarette filters.
The resulting thermoplastic cellulose acetate is like any other plastic. A synthetic plastic has an incredibly slow rate of degration: it may take anywhere from 18 months to 15 years. In short, your cigarettes take years to degrade just like all plastic products, even when disposed of properly.
To compound this problem, most cigarette butts aren’t, in fact, disposed of properly. By number, cigarette butts are the most littered item in the country, according to the 2008 Annual International Coastal Cleanup.
As litter, the cigarette butts end up in our waterways, oceans, and rivers, where they leach toxic chemicals. Butts have been found in the stomachs of fish, birds, whales and other marine life. It has also been shown that cigarettes are highly toxic to a type of marine flea. A seemingly small form of life, the fleas are an important lower rung in the aquatic food chain.
Cigarette butts contain numerous different poisonous substances and toxins, including the pesticide nicotine, which have a very detrimental effect on ecosystems and wildlife.
Big tobacco is also aware of the problem this presents. Biodegradable filters have been called the ‘holy grail’ by manufacturers, but they also note the obstacles in consumer taste and draw. Tobacco companies are even working to reduce the environmental impact of cigarette trash.
Philip Morris finances the nonprofit organization Keep America Beautiful, which is a community action and education group. One of their largest programs is their cigarette litter prevention program that encourages people to rally around the issue to force change in their own communities. The campaign also focuses on addressing the problem with more accessible receptacles and more stringent littering laws. Simple acts like this were shown to reduce cigarette littering by an average 46 percent.
Even for those who may not be concerned about environmental factors, cigarette litter affects the wallet as well. Residents and business owners, smokers or non, are all paying for cigarette clean-up with sidewalk and street sweeping, park maintenance and cleaning of storm drains and filters. It doesn’t carry a small price tag either. According to Mayor Gavin Newsom, the city of San Francisco alone spends around $11 million annually to clean up cigarette litter.
Beyond all that, cigarette litter contributes to unsightly public areas and destroys naturally beautiful landscapes. Recognition and action to address the problem is necessary. So smokers, think before you throw.
