Keep Your Butt Off Of Our Streets!

According to CigaretteLitter.org, it is estimated that several trillion cigarette butts are littered worldwide every year. That's billions of cigarettes flicked, one at a time, on our sidewalks, streets, beaches, nature trails, gardens, and other public places every single day. In fact, cigarettes are the most littered item in the United States and the world. Cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate, not cotton, and they can take decades to degrade. Not only does cigarette litter ruin even the most picturesque setting, but the toxic residue in cigarette filters is damaging to the environment, and littered butts cause numerous fires every year, some of them fatal.

The battle against cigarette litter can only be won if smokers join the fight on the right side. There are already millions of smokers who don't litter their cigarettes, and many of them are actively spreading the word to fellow smokers. Unfortunately, they are still a small minority. If you are a considerate smoker who doesn't litter, thank you! Please continue setting a positive example and please continue to help us in any way that you can.

If you are a smoker who does litter, we hope that you will learn about the impact of your actions and break the habit. Think about why you litter and think about whether those reasons really make sense to you. Chances are you have used one or more of the following rationales for your behavior:

They are biodegradable. No they are not! This is a gigantic myth. Different groups have done different studies and their results differ, with some people saying cigarettes decompose in a year, some saying it takes twelve years, and others saying they never decompose at all, as the filters are made of a type of acetate that never fully breaks down.

What else am I supposed to do with them? There are many ways to dispose of cigarettes without littering them on the ground. You can improvise with such things as film containers, metal mint containers, regular tin foil, or anything else that’s handy. Then at the first opportunity dispose of them properly. A note to motorists – please use your car ashtray! If it is OK to put it in your mouth, it is OK to put it in your ashtray.

It serves everybody right for making me smoke outside and taxing my cigarettes.
We don't want to get into any smoking issues unrelated to litter. We will say that we think littering is a very short-sighted and ineffective way to get your message across. Smokers who litter give a bad name to all smokers and make non-smoking activists even more dedicated to increasing smoking bans and raising taxes.

Adopt YOUR Block is encouraging our local governments to install cigarette disposal equipment on every street corner. And since smokers cannot enter a building with a lighted cigarette, why don’t all business owners install disposal equipment at their entrances? We can be successful at eliminating this unnecessary nuisance by working together to get the facts out and to raise public awareness on the issue. Together, both smokers and non-smokers, we can make our area shine!