Keep Your Butts Out of the Lynnhaven!
How many times have you seen a curb, parking lot, or beach littered with cigarettes? Many people don't see cigarettes as pollution or trash. They believe that they are biodegradable, and will eventually disappear into the environment. However, even though cigarette filters, or "butts," may look like cotton, they are made of something
called cellulose acetate, a type of plastic!
On average, it takes anywhere from 18 months to
10 years for a cigarette filter to biodegrade, depending on environmentals.
Environmental impact
In addition to plastic materials, cigarette filters release the toxic chemicals they are
designed to collect from cigarette smoke into the environment. These chemicals get washed into nearby
waterways and can impact macroinvertebrate populations, which ultimately
disrupt entire food webs. These filters
are also eaten by larger organisms like fish and birds that mistake them for
food. Additionally, littered
cigarette filters can start wildfires and cause massive ecological and economic
damage.
What can we do to solve this problem?
The simple solution is to start disposing of these
filters properly. While there are less ashtrays around these days, smokers can use a pocket
ashtray.
You can get yours FREE HERE
There are also some new cigarette filter repurposing
programs out there. The Santa Fe Natural
Tobacco Company collects cigarette filters, and other cigarette material from
the public to make various plastic products like ashtrays and shipping
pallets. You can find out more about
this and sign yourself up here. Another new and exciting potential use for these filters was
discovered recently by scientists in South Korea. They have converted the filter plastic into a
material to be used in various electronic devises. You can read about this research here.
There is still time to turn this problem around. Become part of the
solution--no butts about it!
Written by Clint Boaz, Edited by Trista Imrich
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