No Butts on the Beach!
Worldwide, cigarette litter is the most common item found on beaches. An estimated several trillion cigarette ends enter the environment every year.
Cigarette litter is a growing environmental concern in the UK and is found in large amounts on the UK’s beaches. During MCS Beachwatch Big Weekend 2011, over 4,300 cigarette ends were recorded and during the 2010 International Coastal Clean-up over 1.8 million cigarette ends were found- this is all from just one weekend!
Cigarette ends can be mistaken for food and eaten by marine animals. They have been found in the guts of whales, dolphins, sea birds and turtles, where they may leach toxic chemicals, cause inflammation of the animal’s digestive system and occasionally even death.
Cigarette filters are designed to absorb some of the tar and chemicals found in cigarettes such as cadmium, lead and arsenic. However, once the filter reaches the sea, these toxic chemicals are leached out into the water. Experiments by K. Register in 2000 have shown that one cigarette filter is toxic enough to kill water fleas (Daphnia magna) in 8 litres of water.
Cigarette filters are not biodegradable, as is commonly thought. The filters are made from cellulose acetate, a type of plastic which can persist in the environment for many years. Cigarette filters also contain tobacco, a powerful insecticide. Estimates of the time it takes for a cigarette filter to degrade at sea vary from 12-15 years. Cigarette butts dropped in the street can also end up in our seas and on our beaches through being washed down drains, sewers and carried by rivers to the coast.
How you can help
If you are a smoker - avoid cigarette littering in the street or on beaches, and please take a portable ash tray/butt bin with you. Don't forget a butt bin can be as simple as an empty film canister!
Write to your local council to ask for more cigarette bins in public places.
Encourage hotels, shopping centres and other businesses to place cigarette bins outdoors.
Encourage smokers to carry portable ashtrays with them.
Take part in MCS’s Beachwatch projects to help clean and survey beach litter to see whether cigarette ends are a problem on your beach.
For more information you can download our No butts on the beach factsheet.
