If you needed yet another reason to quit smoking, here it is.
So many people don’t realise the reality of cigarette waste.
“It’s just one small butt” adds up to:
- 4.5 TRILLION butts littered globally each year - - Enough to circle the Earth 300 times if placed end to end
“It’s just paper and cotton” - NOPE:
- The filter is plastic (cellulose acetate)
- Contains over 15,000 plastic fibres
- Takes up to 14 years to break down
- Even then, it just becomes microplastics
“Rain will wash it away” - Yeah, right into:
- Storm drains
- Rivers
- Oceans
- Fish (they mistake them for food)
“At least it’s not toxic” - Actually:
- One butt can contaminate up to 40 liters of water
- Contains arsenic, lead, nicotine, and other toxins
- Kills fish, birds, and other wildlife
I knew about the first part and the third and fourth, but I had no idea that it also contributed so much to plastic pollution.
Yeah it’s crazy. It’s definitely not something most people associate with plastic.
That’s crazy! I didn’t even realize they had plastic in them. Makes you wonder how many inconspicuous everyday items have the potential to become plastic waste.
Car tires are supposed to be bad. I remember reading each loses ~1kg in pulverised plastic dust over the lifetime?
Luckily, at least some of that is filtered from the air by people’s lungs.Oh, do you know what else? Paint. Apparently, a lot of studies didn’t account for microplastics that came from several types of paint that end up in the environment. Scary stuff.
Like that paint that they use on highways that needs to be reapplied every so often because it disappears
Well, it doesn’t just disappear. Microplastics. Highways are doubly bad for plastic waste.
Oh lord… That’s true. I never thought of that. And then we have studies like these. Do you have testicles? Well… You have microplastics in them.
I didn’t even realized they had plastic in them.
you didn’t WHAT THE F???
No, I didn’t. Why the animosity? Do you perhaps go around looking at cigarette butts thinking “Oh… those have the potential to become plastic waste?”
I have on many occasions cleaned up the discarded cigarettes stubs of some inconsiderate shithead smoker, yes. But even without that, unless you live in Singapore, you should have enough awareness about whats going on around you to notice a pattern after a couple of years that you never see cigarette stubs in any form of decomposition, only the fibers coming apart.
Congratulations, good Samaritan. Do you want a cookie for your efforts? I just hadn’t specifically thought about cigarettes, which I clearly pointed out in my original comment. If you’ve noticed, good for you. I hadn’t. But spare me the condescension.
It used to be cotton, didn’t it
Or even asbestos at some point lolI need some of those asbestos filters. My brand isn’t giving me cancer fast enough.
Asbestos may be - but no cigarette bud I have ever seen has decomposed. So definitely none of the millions I’ve had to see has ever been made of organic materials. And I would have a hard time believing that I simply never saw an organic cigarette bud in an intermediate decomposition stage. So they haven’t been used in any significant amount during my lifetime.
Some exec at RJ Reynolds in the 40’s
“The damn government is making us take asbestos out of the filters. What can we put instead?”
“I know, how bout some space aged plastic!”
Aren’t microplastics from car tires more common?
Presumably plastic pollution is a superset of microplastic pollution
I thought so too, and maybe they are using a different metric in this article, but I couldn’t tell you since their source URL is a deadline…
This article is quite likely fake news. The first paper cited only says they’re the most common pollution on beaches.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0013935119300787
The metric is also “count”, not volume/mass, so not a very useful metric at all.
I also remember Coke, Pepsi, and Nestle being claimed as the highest plastic polluters as well.
I live in the US and it’s becoming more and more unusual in many places to see people smoking. As a result, I see fewer discarded cigarette butts than ever. Still not zero, but getting there.
It’s one of those big cultural shifts that has gone on in my life slowly but steadily. I recall my school bus driver would smoke doing his rounds, people smoking almost everywhere, even grocery stores. My family had lots of smokers, 3 out of my 4 grandparents smoked, all paid the piper, the habit led to their demise. Vending machines selling cigarettes everywhere. I recall it first was restricted on airplanes, with smoking sections separated with curtains, then in restaurants. A lot of it was ineffective and mostly symbolic, but then the biggest change was when California banned almost all indoor smoking in businesses, other states followed suit over the next decade. That combined with all the legal problems the tobacco industry had in the 90s has really caused a dramatic shift.
It’s the hardest thing about traveling to Europe for me. I love being in Europe, but after living in a part of the US with almost no smokers it is jarring to smell cigarette smoke everywhere on the streets there.
I notice fewer people smoke here as well tbf
I get nostalgic whenever I smell cigarettes, which is very rare these days.
“hmm, the smell of cancer, addiction and poverty!”
I think in Europe it’s just the smell of cancer, addiction, and Europeans
I live in the U.S. too and I still see a ton here in Indiana, but we also apparently have a nicotine addiction epidemic here that no one talks about much.
As of 2022:
Nearly 29% of Indiana adults currently use tobacco. Combustible cigarettes are the most used tobacco product, followed by e-cigarettes.
I don’t know what the rate is here in Massachusetts, but it’s rare to have to smell cigarettes these days. I really think we’re more likely to (and my kids complain about the stench) encounter pot smokers these days. I can’t help but think that’s a good thing … but have to follow up each with an obligatory dad lecture on the health concerns with putting burning anything in your lungs
Edit: West Virginia, of course
I’m in Western NY, but even in NYC it’s less than 9%. The state offers a lot of support for quitting, perhaps that’s why.
Aren’t cigarettes like $15 a pack there? That probably has something to do with it.
That’s exactly it. I’m a smoker from one of the states with the lowest taxes on cigarettes. I’m heading to New York in a couple of weeks and I’ll be stocking up before I leave. If I lived there I would quit, can’t justify spending that money. I’ve already switched to a cheaper brand that has deals at Sheetz that make them roughly $5 a pack.
I’ve never done this myself, but I’ve known a couple people that take a ton of cigarettes with them when they go to New York. This is highly profitable and highly illegal.
They’re $15 throughout the state. So they’re probably more in the city.
Reservation cigarettes negate those prices though.
Reservation cigarettes negate those prices though.
TIL that, on at least some Indian reservations in the United States, cigarettes are sold, sold at a lower price and sold to the general public. I could not find a reference on Wikipedia; all I found was a seemingly unofficial webpage.
The reason they’re cheaper is because they don’t need to charge tax on them. Regular cigarettes are the same price, but they have all of the taxes on top of that, which makes them cost three times as much.
That’s interesting there isn’t anything on wiki about it. It’s not a secret or anything.
The reason they’re cheaper is because they don’t need to charge tax on them.
I understand. Thank you for confirming it.
I’ve heard people here in Europe sometimes save on cigarettes in a similar way, by buying them across the border, where taxes are lower, or in duty-free shops at airports, but that’s possibly outdated or even made-up hearsay I’ve never checked.
That’s interesting there isn’t anything on wiki about it. It’s not a secret or anything.
There may be something I missed, or it might be such an inconsequential and uncontroversial phenomenon that no one deemed it worth documenting.
You don’t have to go to the rez, or be a Native. We used to buy cartons at the Indian smoke shops in Tulsa. $1 pack in the 90s.
I doubt there’s much support here at all and there was pretty much a red wave in this state in November, so there will probably be even less next year.
I remember when I left Indiana 25 years ago that it was the highest per capita state for smoking, with Kentucky being number 2.
So what would you be your solution?
Why do I need a solution to recognize a problem? Or are you saying that many addicts is a good thing?
how harmful do you consider tobacco in the context of booze?
This post being about plastic waste caused by cigarettes, I’m not sure why you’re whatabouting alcohol.
It came up on the context of nicotine and how much people are addicted, yet i don’t see the uproar of the people who throw their empties into the river or on the road.
Because people were already aware of the problems there and, just based on comments, many people aren’t even aware that cigarette filters are plastic.
Do you bring up cigarettes whenever alcoholism is mentioned or is this only a one-way street?
Is it a contest?
No, i dont think so, i just don’t think its fair to demonize smoking if we celebrate drinking. everyone has a vice.
When did I celebrate drinking? Both addictions are huge burdens on the healthcare system.
Both should be demonized.
Is it just being replaced by other equally bad habits? I just found out that disposable vape pens are a thing. Those have plastics and electronics inside. I have no idea what the numbers there are.
Although vaping has become really big, there’s a lot more people quitting smoking than there are picking up vaping.
And vaping is not equally bad by a long shot. Cigarettes are far worse for you. Also, vaping isn’t nearly as annoying for the people around the user. I say all this as a cigarette smoker myself.
Those disposable vapes are disgustingly wasteful. Apparently you can take them apart and make them reusable or repurpose the battery, but very few people are going to mess with that.
there’s a lot more people quitting smoking than there are picking up vaping
Sadly, in Australia, this isn’t the case. We had very, very low smoking rates, and vaping has opened up the floodgates to new nicotine addicts, many, many of which never even tried cigarettes.
I’m pretty annoyed about it, to be honest.
Another generation who will reap the rewards of cancer, which will be a massive cost to society. Financially and emotionally.
I really hope we can stem the tide.
I can’t claim to know the future, or more than doctors have described, but it really does seem that vaping is much better for your health compared to cigarettes.
You can feel it. Once you get used to vaping it doesn’t hurt at all. Meanwhile, after smoking for essentially my entire adult life, if I smoke too many I’ll feel it hard the next day.
I’m not claiming they’re the same as cigarettes. Just that if they hadn’t come along, a huge number of people (in Australia) may never have picked up a nicotine addiction at all.
And that’s a shame :(
I’m just saying nicotine isn’t very likely to give someone cancer and strain healthcare than the fucking 100+ chemicals, tar, and ash that are in what I smoke.
Nicotine itself is not cancerogen! The stuff that gives you the big C are the combustion byproducts, and vaping does not combust anything. The main ingredients of the used liquid are vegetable glycerin, which is harmless, and propylengycole, which is also quite harmless. The only thing where there isn’t enough information yet are the used aromas, which are the same as the stuff that gets added to our food; there is not much data regarding inhalation of those.
Sure, it would be far better if they didn’t vape (especially if they didn’t smoke before - i am using it instead of tobacco as harm reduction), but at least you can relax regarding the size of the health impact.
Weed is more or less legal and available everywhere in the US.
That’s not at all true.
Legal everywhere, no. Available everywhere, yes.
I love smoking. I know it’s killing me. I realize it stinks to other people. I never smoke indoors. I try my best to be considerate of others and never throw my butts on the ground.
But it’s getting a bit ridiculous the demonizing of smokers in the US. If I walk to the edge of a business’s property where there is literally no one and smoke a cigarette, I shouldn’t be harassed by cops or security to cross the street, go several blocks away, or similar.
LE are just assholes. I vape now but have dreamed of just hand rolling cigs ahead of time. Biodegradable, smells better, tastes better
Agreed on first point.
But when you hand roll do you use those tubes with a filter? I doubt it since you said biodegradable. The only times I hand rolled were when I was broke. A bag of Bugler with papers was like $2.50 back in the day. Roughly 50 cigarettes the way I rolled. But damn that shit killed my lungs. I’m sure a nicer brand would be better all around but no filter smokes fuck me up.
I never smoked hand rolls regularly; they didn’t feel bad in the moment but we were working with cardboard standoffs, not really much of a filter in that case. It’s probably for the best I’ve moved on from that
not if you put the little filters in them
just light up a joint instead. it’s the greener alternative.
Absolutely, good for you. But if you smoke joints like I go through cigarettes you’re on Snoop’s level.
I never see people smoking in the Puget Sound area. I saw people smoking all over NYC when I was there.
If you know people at the right bodega you can get them much cheaper because they’re illegally imported from the south. Additionally, if someone is working in NYC they probably make better money than people in most other places, so $15 to them isn’t the same as $15 to me.
I was in the city a few years ago and my (latino in appearance) co-worker told me about a shop where he got some cheap packs. I (white in appearance) went to the shop about an hour later and was sold New York cigarettes at a ball-busting price. That’s just the reality some places.
If you’re curious, you can look at the bottom of the cellophane to find the tax stamp, which will tell you the state they were taxed for sale in
Nice. NYC tobacco tax is outrageous, so is Washington State.
Dislike smoking but realize that for addicts often public infrastructure doesn’t give you a lot of options for getting rid of butts. Seems like biodegradable butts should be mandatory. On the other hand I will lean into my horn if I see someone throwing butts out of their car. That is inexcusable - get an ashtray for your vehicle.
I mean, who cares? It’s the smokers’ problem? If you can’t dispose of your trash take it with you or stop producing it until you can. That’s true for any trash.
We expect people to carry doggie bags, too. Just clean up after yourself.
I realize that’s idealistic and it’s never going to happen because smokers be littering, but it makes me mad regardless.
doggy bags to take my food to go, or doggie bags to take the poo to go?
Dog poop. Is that not what doggie bags are? 😅 I always thought using the term for food also was a little strange. I’m not a native speaker, my bad if I used it incorrectly.
Leftovers that you keep for “the dog”! Less and less frequently does it make it to dogs though, a crime of our time.
When I smoked I always put my butts in my pocket.
It’s not hard to pick up after yourself. Put the cig out, and instead of dropping it on the ground put it in your pocket. If thats too stinky carry a sandwich bag or dog poop bag for them.
Now that that’s out of the way, it’s interesting that birds have been using cigarette butts to line their nests. Turns out nicotine is a great miticide. Hopefully it’s not hurting them in the long run, which is why we should pick up our fucking garbage.
flicking your cigarette into the void was completely normal every place that i lived in the US. it isn’t thought about or frowned upon. it’s simply part of the ritual of having a cigarette.
For many smokers, the world is their ashtray.
That is a State of mind perhaps, but frankly illegal in many places
I just get all the tobacco out of the butt and put it in my back pocket until I find a trash can. It makes me stink even worse but that’s better than littering.
I do the same thing, but if you thought we stunk before that…man.
Nah I know how bad we stink. I’ve quit twice, long enough for it to become overwhelming again. I can’t smell it but I know it’s there.
I can’t smell it either at this point. I don’t smoke inside though.
I’ll never forget this one.
My ex and I were both chain smokers. I didn’t want to smoke inside but she was convinced a fan in the window was enough. I never smelled it before, but her mom bitched every time she came over.
When we split, I went back trying to work it out multiple times and I couldn’t stand the smell of her clean clothes even. It was awful. Even as a smoker I couldn’t stand the smell of that place. I remember falling asleep with her on the couch and just gagging.
I would NEVER smoke inside after smelling that. I also keep a cat litter container outside for butts and a Gatorade bottle with a little water in my car.
I threw cigarette butts everywhere when I was younger, then one day I seen a program about the butts ending up in waterways and I haven’t tossed one since.
Yeah I tossed and stomped, or flicked out the car window, when I was young. Smoked inside at my first three apartments and at my mom’s house.
I was callous in so many ways in my youth. Littering cigarettes ain’t nothing compared to how I acted in general. I try to keep it in mind and not judge the youth of today harshly.
Good onya for picking up after yourself & self awareness.
It was super hard for me to quit too (4 or 5 times and years on NRT) but it gets easier slowly. For me it was very worth it but we all have our own journeys.I don’t think it’s possible to quit smoking twice. The first time, there was just a longer gap between cigarettes.
In that case I never quit. I’ll keep this great advice in mind next time I feel like I have my life settled out and stress minimized so I can try again but give up immediately once I remember that the other two times didn’t count.
public infrastructure doesn’t give you a lot of options for getting rid of butts
It’s literally the same infrastructure as for every other kind of litter: a bin. Just stamp it out and throw it away. If there isn’t a bin take it with you and throw it out later. Before I quit smoking I had a small plastic vial with a screw lid that I collected the butts in for later disposal. A small jar, dedicated pocket ash tray or in a pinch even a plastic bag or simply a pocket would work too. It’s really not that hard.
I realise you’re probably not one of the people who litter their cigarette butts, but you still shouldn’t be making excuses for people who do. Throwing cigarettes on the ground is no better than any other kind of littering. And while I’m at it: the same goes for bottle caps.
Is that safe? Seems like a risk of fire to throw a recently lit butt into a general bin.
That’s why you stamp it out first.
I wish that was the only need…Ive worked with people who didn’t want to walk 5 feet to the ashtray and prefered to flick their butts on the floor, at coffee shops with an outside area most people ignore the ashtrays and just flick it to the street…people are lazy
I thought tires were responsible for like 25% of micro plastics.
Never mind. I just read what I wrote, and realized they’re two different things.
I also had the idea that fishing nets were the most common sea plastic.
Just ban the filter. Let them smoke raw and unfiltered.
We should go back to using natural materials for filters, like asbestos. /s
Pretty typical response these days. “jUsT BaN iT!”
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Any smoker already knows they’re killing themselves. Now it turns out their “filters” are harming us. I can’t even use a plastic straw anymore for fuck’s sake. Why not get rid of the filter?
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I doubt that filters provide any real harm reduction beyond trapping a little bit of tar, quick internet search will confirm. They seem to do more harm than good when you consider their environmental impact. From my pov, keeping them around is needlessly cruel and results in no benefit whatsoever
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Bro don’t cherry pick when quoting me, wth. They absolutely harm the environment more than help. Again smokers know the risk when they started smoking. They don’t get to mitigate that risk by poisoning the environment with their trapped tar filters that they flick everywhere with out a care for themselves or nonsmokers or the environment.
You’re wrong on this one
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If we were serious about getting people to quit, it would be better to force producers to slowly decrease the nicotine content, and the other addictive additives used in cigarettes. Of course the producers lobby and sue governments trying to limit them in any way.
Or, and hear me out here, since no one would die from withdrawal and the product has no medicinal benefits and directly causes adverse health outcomes with no redeeming qualities: stop production completely.
I spent over 20 years enslaved to nicotine. Now that I’m free, I don’t want to see anyone else have to go through it.
At least for me, I’m much more addicted to the ritual and the motions of smoking than I am the nicotine. I’m sure this isn’t true for everybody. I know this because the first time I quit by vaping, I started with high nicotine juice and pretty quickly went down to 0% nicotine. Stopping the act of vaping was almost as hard as stopping cigarettes.
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Smoking with a filter has no health benefits. Statistically, there are even more illnesses with people that smoke with filter cause they on average smoke more cause it irritates the throat less.
Our local cancer NGO even lobbied to ban filtered sigarettes as they cause more smoking and are plastic litter.
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Being very cynical, how does killing them faster not lessen the burden on society at large? It’s a burden I’m glad we choose to bear, but just literally mathematically, the amount spent worldwide on treating people with smoking damage is astronomical.
Statistically, it’s at least possible that the amount of cost saved by killing some smokers faster could be offset by causing other smokers to need medical treatment who would otherwise have avoided it.
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And as the article already says what’s even worse is the cocktail of chemicals in those filters which are even more harmful than simple PET and the like.
That we know of, I bet microplastics is actually worse but we can’t measure it in aggregate well.
I wasn’t aware cigarettes contained any plastic at all
The filters are basically all plastic except the paper around them.
Not a smoker, but I believe smokers are treated poorly, as are businesses that cater to smokers.
But my beliefs are really put to the test everytime I see a smoker throw their butt on the ground.
Not treated poorly enough.
Why should any human being be treated poorly?
For being disrespectful to the people around them.
You shouldn’t paint with such a broad brush. There are plenty of considerate smokers who try not to smoke around others and never litter our butts. Just like with so many other things, the people who are highly visible assholes give others a bad name.
That’s fair.
I agree it’s disrespectful. I have often picked butts up and handed them back.
For people in motor vehicles, I tend to pick them up and tuck the butt under their windshield wiper. This is relatively easy if I’m on my motorcycle stopped at a traffic light.
