Published on June 15, 2009
Carol Thomas states she had never thrown anything on the ground, since littering on the streets has been her buzz-bug for a long time. She said she taught her children not to throw their candy wraps and other thing on the ground. Mrs. Thomas even gets annoyed seeing strangers doing this. However, she admits that she regularly discards her car ashtray on the road.
For Carol Thomas and thousands smokers, discarding cigarette butts makes an exception to general no-littering norm.
Yet hundreds of cities throughout the country have been sick and tired of the smokers throwing their butts everywhere. Irritated by seeing the butts in every corner of the ground and paying enormous prices for scavenging them, municipal councils have approved restrictions on smoking in parks, beaches and playgrounds. In such populated cities like New York, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco up to $15 million is spend annually on sweeping cigarette butts.
Smokers perceive cigarette butts as a more natural type of litter than, a candy wrapper. However, butts are not subject to biodegradation. Butts are made of plastic filters which get into rivers and seas, where they evaporate toxins among which are nicotine, cadmium and other chemicals.
For decades, anti-smoking activists pushed for higher taxes citing health complications, exposure to secondhand smoke and recently the revenues increases. With the newest campaign to removing cigarette butts and punish those who discard them, the authorities draw their attention to the large scale consequences of the nation’s most pernicious individual habit to the environment.
Cigarette industry recognizes this problem. Altria Group that owns Philip Morris, the America’s leading cigarette maker funded the Cigarette Litter Prevention Program. According to the program’s statistics, cigarette litter forms 35% of all litter across the country - if judging not by volume but by number of items. Another research, completed by the Ocean Conservancy Group, a nonprofit organization also sponsored by tobacco industry, showed that cigarette litter constitutes for almost 30% of all litter washed up on beaches throughout the planet.
The cigarette makers admit they have a special group of scientists working on doing cigarettes more eco-friendly. James Chester, RJ Reynolds spokesman claimed the industry is doing their best to develop biodegradable cigarette but yet did not manage to find the appropriate solution since there are many controversial issues. The industry internal documents showed the smokers did not like the taste of cigarettes with eco-friendly filters.
Philip Morris spokesman said they supported such campaigns that were aimed at decreasing the level of litter. For instance, the sponsored by them, Keep America Beautiful campaign encourages such things as portable ashtrays, more bins in public places and stricter littering rules.
In 2008, the program was launched in 160 cities and towns reported that discarding cigarette trash was decreased by 40-45% as the results of the campaign.
