Where to find cigarettes on the ground

Cigarette butts can take many years to break down. Littering remains a common method of disposing butts. Smoking rates are still at epidemic levels. Topic Harmful Effects of Tobacco. Subtopic Environment. More in harmful effects of tobacco. Nicotine Addiction. Paris aims to stub out cigarette litter. Image source, Getty Images. Man spots 'own amputation' on cigarette packets Bird feeding chick cigarette end captured in picture Nature's emergency in five graphics.

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What does the law say? Related Topics. Published 19 July Cigarette butts on the ground can also hinder plant growth, according to a study published in July in the journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety.

Researchers found that the presence of cigarette butts in the soil reduced the likelihood of successful germination and the length of a plant's stems in the two plants studied — ryegrass and white clover. These plants were chosen because they are common foraging crops for livestock and are also commonly found in green spaces in urban and suburban areas.

Improperly disposed of cigarettes and smoking materials can also cause wildfires. In fact, 90 percent of wildfires are caused by human activity, including cigarette litter, unattended campfires and arson, according to the Insurance Information Institute. Today, litter from smoking doesn't just include cigarette butts. With the rising popularity of e-cigarettes, the cartridges and pods used in these devices have also become increasingly common as litter, National Geographic reports.

These pods, which look similar to flash drives, are becoming a common sight in many of the same places we see cigarette butts. The problem with this influx of e-cigarettes is that they are classified as both electronic waste because they have electronic components and hazardous waste because of the nicotine contained in the pod, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. E-cigarettes have posed an issue of how to properly dispose of them. Worldwide annual consumption of cigarettes creates enough cigarette butt waste to fill more than 2,,, liters 2,, m3.

So how many cigarette butts are finding their way into streams, rivers and coastal environments? The International Coastal Cleanup, organized annually by The Ocean Conservancy formerly the Center for Marine Conservation involves more than , volunteers picking up debris from beaches, rivers and streams around the world. Volunteers complete Marine Debris Data Cards indicating the quantity and type of litter they pick up.

Every year during the International Coastal Cleanup, cigarette butts top the list as the most abundant item collected worldwide. Cigarette butt litter is also one of the top sources of litter in Virginia. Cigarette butts are the most common debris item collected during the Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup numbering:. Cigarette butts have topped the list in all the Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanups since they were added to the Data Cards as a separate item in The number of cigarette butts collected during the cleanup is a small fraction of what is really out in the environment.

Click here for newspaper articles about how communities are trying to reduce cigarette litter.