The Earth is Not One Giant Ashtray

Environmental impact of cigarette butt litter

The filters on cigarettes -- four fifths of all cigarettes have them -- are made of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic that is very slow to degrade in the environment. A typical cigarette butt can take anywhere from 18 months to 10 years to decompose, depending on environmental conditions.

But beyond the plastic, these filters -- which are on cigarettes in the first place to absorb contaminants to prevent them from going into the lungs -- contain trace amounts of toxins like cadmium, arsenic and lead. Thus when smokers discard their butts improperly -- out the car window or off the end of a pier or onto the sidewalk below -- they are essentially tossing these substances willy-nilly into the environment.

Studies done by Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and even the tobacco industry itself show that these contaminants get into soils and waterways, harm or kill living organisms, and generally degrade surrounding ecosystems.

Some 5.5 trillion cigarettes are consumed worldwide each year. According to the Ocean Conservancy, cigarette butts are the most commonly littered item found on America's salt and freshwater beaches. While individual discarded cigarette butts may be small, they add up to a huge problem.