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- Globally, approximately 4.3 trillion cigarette butts are littered every year.
- Smokers in the USA account for over 250 billion cigarette butts, in the UK 200 tonnes of butts are discarded, and Australian smokers litter over 7 billion cigarette butts annually.
- In most Western countries cigarette butt litter accounts for around 50% of all litter.
- Almost 1 in 3 cigarette butts end up as litter.
- It can take up to 12 years for a cigarette butt to break down.
- Cigarette butts can leach chemicals such as cadmium, lead and arsenic into our marine environment within an hour of contact with water.
- Cigarette butts have been found in the stomachs of fish, whales, birds and other marine animals which leads to ingestion of hazardous chemicals and digestive blockages.
Links to more facts:
Butting Out is Better for you and for the Environment
Cigarette butts are marine pollution; they’re not small and harmless
Cigarette Litter and How it Affects Us
Cigarette and street littering articles:
Yellowknife targets cigarette litter
City tells smokers where to put their butts
Cigarette butt vigilante achieves YouTube fame for anti-litter action
Please keep your butts inside
Cigarette butts biggest polluter of Canadian ocean shorelines
Bill 28, the Cigarette and Cigar Butt Litter Prevention Act
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