Spain is a country where people smoke a lot, it is estimated that about 90 million cigars are smoked every day. Because of this bad habit, at the end of the year some 32.8 billion cigarette butts are generated in the environment. These filters can take up to 10 years to degrade.
It is estimated that 15% of these end up on the beaches, with their negative consequences: pollution and bad image. On a global scale, and taking into account all the places where we can find this waste, the figure rises to almost 5 billion.
It is in cigarette butts where most of the health-damaging agents accumulate. These harmful agents then end up in the sea or other water sources, contaminating them. It is estimated that butts are the second most polluting element on beaches.
The harmful agents we are talking about are acetone, ammonia, naphthalene, arsenic, methanol and even industrial solvents or radioactive products. As well as damaging people’s health and polluting water, this can also cause fires.
It is very important to raise awareness and get people to start acting to reduce tobacco pollution. Because it is not only the lives of those who smoke that are at stake, but also the sustainability of the environment. The lives of animal species and future generations.
This is a global problem that we must all help with.
Campaigns to reduce cigarette butts
In view of these figures, a series of campaigns have been created to try to stop the increase of cigarette butts in nature.
For example, the campaign #unearththebutt, created by the platform Teua Terra. This campaign will try to fight during the month of August the effects that the different toxic substances of cigarette butts have. Its action focuses on raising awareness and education. It also encourages bathers to denounce the state of the beaches. These denunciations are made in the form of a photo of the cigarette butts present in the sand. Another action of the campaign is to inform smokers about the dangers to health and nature of tobacco.
It should be noted that cigarette butts should not be buried in the sand on the beach because most of them end up in the sea. We often think that for one thing nothing happens, but if everyone thinks about it and does it, it ends up creating a worldwide problem with millions of polluting cigarette butts.
It is estimated that each cigarette butt contaminates between 8 and 10 liters of salt water, if it is fresh water it can reach 50 liters. In addition, in the sand they cannot be recycled properly.
If fish and other sea animals eat these butts they can die.
Another campaign to help the environment is the “No more cigarette butts” campaign that gathers volunteers to collect cigarette butts from the beach.
Also in Valencia, the creation of smoke-free beaches is being promoted. This way, if you can’t smoke, people won’t be able to throw their cigarette butts on the ground.
Apart from supporting this type of campaign, we can help in other ways. Collecting cigarette butts when we go to the beach, in case we are smokers throwing them in their proper place, etc. The administration, for its part, can place ashtrays, encourage the use of portable ashtrays on the beach and make information and education campaigns. The latter two will be the most efficient in the future, to reduce the number of cigarette butts in the sea and sand.
If we all do our part, we can clean up the beaches and water to create a pollution-free environment. Preserving the survival of marine animal and plant species, reducing forest fires and improving the health of citizens.