Smoking is bad for your health but it only affects you- right? There are at least 124 million cigarettes butts put into the environment every single day in the UK alone. Globally this figure nears 6 trillion cigarettes per year. Nearly all (95%) of cigarette filters are made from cellulose acetate- a plastic which persists in the environment for over a decade. A recent report from NBC news showed that cigarette butts were the biggest man-made contaminant in the world's oceans, not plastic bags nor plastic straws. This is one of the largest sources of plastic pollution in the world so it needs to be tackled as fast as possible.
Biodegradable cigarettes do exist. Greenbutts is an organisation that has created the world’s first biodegradable cigarette filter, made from natural products such as hemp and cotton. The solution is out there but it needs to be put into practice.
Natural parks and beaches are some of the UK's greatest assets. But walk through any single one and you will see cigarette butts. Not only do they spoil natural beauty, ingestion of plastics by animals can be incredibly harmful by disrupting immune systems and causing disease. On top of all this, they cost tax payer money. For example, the City of London spend £3.8 million cleaning the streets of cigarette butts every year. This could be used for other public services which have their own funding issues.
This problem is well recognised in the scientific literature and many newspaper articles have been written. And yet, no government action has been done. Sign this petition to make Michael Gove realise how much the British public cares about the environment and how urgently change is needed.
