Did you know that 1 cig butt pollutes at least 500 litres of water?
The core of most cigarette filters, the part that looks like white cotton, is actually a form of plastic (cellulose acetate)…
This is very slow to degrade in our environment…it can take 18 months to 10(+) years for a cigarette filter to decompose…they are full of toxins, which can leach into the ground and waterways, damaging living organisms that come into contact with them…
Cigarette butts work their way into our waterways primarily through storm drains that dump into streams and lakes…they are a threat to wildlife that could ingest them, mistaking filters for food…
There is no single item in the WORLD that is littered with such abandon as cigarette butts…an estimated 80% of butts on the ground find their way into our waterways…When a cigarette butt hits the water it starts to leach…over 4000 chemicals, 69 of which are known carcinogens, and many of which are poisonous…
A groundbreaking study conducted by San Diego State University on the effects of discarded cigarettes on marine life showed that one cigarette soaked in the water for 96 hours leached enough toxins to kill half of the fresh or saltwater fish exposed to it…
According to a German study published in 2014 in the Journal of Hydrology, one cigarette butt can contaminate (from at least 500 litres) up to 1000 litres of water, with chemical contents above the threshold limit of toxicity concentrated in an ecosystem…
Sources :
@equaltimes
@verywellmind
@swimguide
One thought on “Mind Your Butt”