I do not go a day on campus without seeing someone smoking a cigarette. I always think to myself, “It is 2015. Don’t they know that smoking is unhealthy?” But just today I started to think about the negative effects that cigarettes have not only on the human body, but on out planet. It all began with me walking my usual route from the Willard Building to the library. To my left was a lady smoking a cigarette. Disgusted, I looked down at the ground. Right below my feet was a brown and white used cigarette. As I kept walking Inoticed another, then another, then another. During my three minute journey up Pattee Mall I counted eighteen cigarette butts on the ground. I was and still am shocked. Do these decompose? How much damage are they doing to the environment? Why do people just toss them on the ground. They may be little, but they sure can add up.

According to the Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights website, cigarette butts are the “most commonly discarded piece of waste worldwide.” While many people hold the belief that cigarette butts are biodegradable, they are not. Approximately “1.69 billion pounds of butts wind up as toxic trash each year.” According to a recent study, cigarette waste “easily meets standardized tests for city and state agencies” to classify it as toxic waste.”

Cigarette filters “are composed of cellulose acetate,” which is a type of plastic. Many studieshave been conducted to test the biodegradability of cellulose acetate, but non have found “biological, chemical, and photo chemical degradation mechanisms.”Obviously, part of cellulose acetate is cellulose. As many should know, cellulose “is readily biodegradable by organisms that utilize cellulase enzymes.” However, once the acetate is thrown into the mix, things get much more complicated. The first step of biodegradation is delayed because now, esterases need to be present. Because of this, sources say that it takes between eighteen months and ten years for cigarette butts to degrade. The massive difference in time is due to different environments. Cigarettes that are littered in a dry place will decompose differently than ones littered near a river. Also, the tips of cigars are “predominantly plastic” as well.

Since the life of a cigarette butt is so long, it travels to many places. A website dedicated to cigarette litter prevention claims that “32% of litter at storm drains is tobacco products.” This means that groundwater is being contaminated by the cigarette butts.  The litter that travels through our storm drains and water systems usually winds up in “local streams, rivers, and waterways.” The litter can also become dangerous for animals because it can easily be mistaken for food. Cigarette butts are the “number one most littered item anywhere.” The butts pile up in gutters, near bus stops, and outside of doorways.It is shocking to learn that only 10% of cigarette butts are “properly deposited in ash receptacles.” In fact, cigarette butts are the “least likely item to be placed in a receptacle.” Smokers seem to have the understanding that since cigarette butts are already on the ground, they can add a few more.

In the middle 90s, the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) “received 7917 reports of potentially toxic exposures to tobacco products among children aged less than or equal to 6 years in the United States.” All of these cases were due to ingestion of cigarette butt litter. The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDH) “conducted a case-control study.” The results shows that one third of the children who ingested cigarette butts “exhibited symptoms of illness such as spontaneous vomiting, nausea, lethargy, gagging, and flushing.”

It is quite evident that cigarette litter is a deadly problem. However, many people have identified this issue and action has been taken. Clean up costs are so immense that prevention is our planets best option. First, companies can develop biodegradable filters. Fines and penalties littering can also be raised and number of ash receptacle. But, perhaps the most successful way to end cigarette littering is to end smoking.

Before, whenever I though about cigarettes, I thought about lung damage and cancer. Now, Ithink of so much more than that. Cigarettes don’t just effect the environment through air pollution but through the cigarette butt itself. I urge you to combat the most common type of litter and properly dispose of all your waste. No matter what the size of the litter is and no matter what type of litter it is, it is all having a negative impact on the world.