No Butts On The Beach

An estimated 4.5 TRILLION cigarette butts enter the environment every year. Just take a few moments to let that sink in, tell someone - it's a truly frightening figure, 4.5 trillion cigarette butts! During the Marine Conservation Society's Beachwatch 2003 beach litter survey a total of 14,659 cigarette ends were found on 244 beaches around the UK. This represented an astounding 5% of the total litter found during the survey! An average 108.7 cigarette ends were found for each kilometre of beach surveyed, equivalent to 1 butt for every 10 metres, an increase of 25% from Beachwatch 2002 (86.7 per km). Some of the worst affected beaches found 1 butt for every 4 metres!

The problems (apart from the littering itself) is the filters. They are not, as commonly thought, made of paper, but cellulose acetate, a type of plastic which persists in the environment for many years. As with many types of marine litter, cigarette ends can be mistaken for food and eaten by marine animals. They have been found in the guts of whales, dolphins, sea birds and turtles where they can leach toxic chemicals, cause inflammation of the animal's digestive system and occasionally (if they cause a blockage of the gut) even death.

The cigarette filters are designed to absorb tar and chemicals such as cadmium, lead and arsenic. When filters enter the water these chemicals cause pollution by leaching out. Experiments have shown that just one cigarette filter is toxic enough to kill water fleas in eight litres of water (K. Register, 2000.)

The Solution

In the summer of 2002 SAS officially launched the "No Butts on the Beach" campaign. As with all SAS campaigns, SAS provided a sustainable alternative solution to dispose of their butts responsibly - the butt bin!

The butt bin is designed to let smokers stub out their cigarettes and store them safely and without causing a mess until they can get to a bin. With 14,659 cigarette ends found on 244 beaches around the UK in 2003, the UK can really benefit from the SAS butt bins.

SAS have been distributing butt bins for a number of years, in particular with sponsors and senior lifeguards in Cornwall who were sick of cleaning the beaches of cigarette butts every day.

SAS has already given thousands out free at events and with merchandise orders but if you are a smoker or know of a smoker who would use a butt bin to help save wildlife and the marine environment then you can contact SAS for a free butt bin now (while stocks last)!!

As part of an overall campaign strategy to rid the UK's beaches of cigarette litter in 2005 we are lobbying local authorities to embrace the butt bin idea. In particular to provide their own larger than life butt bins and better beach-based information that will help us reduce the number of cigarette butts on the beach.

Related Articles

4th Mar 08	SAS Win 'Best Environmental Campaign' Award
29 Jun 07	100 pubs, cafes and restaurants sign up to No Butts On The Beach
14 Mar	Beach Bar 'No Butts' Pledge
8 Mar 06	"No Butts On The Beach" say surfers
25 May 04	Cigarette Butt Litter Stubbed Out By Cheeky Beach Campaigners
25 May 04	No Butts on the beach

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