Welcome to Monday Matters– Spread awareness to help important causes and start your week off right by making a difference each Monday, even if that is just to pin, tweet, or share to pass this information on. Join the Monday Matters blog hop at the end of this post.
#NoMasButts is spreading education on the environmental impact of cigarettes
We know that cigarettes are toxic for both people who smoke and those around them. But have you thought about just how toxic and dangerous cigarettes are to the environment?
In San Francisco, tobacco waste accounts for 25 percent of all litter, and cigarette butt waste clean-up costs San Francisco approximately $7.4 million annually. They leach toxic chemicals into the ground, rivers and ocean including arsenic, formaldehyde, and nicotine.
Artist Cristobal Valecillos crafted an incredible piece of art featuring a life size fallen tree and stump crafted from more than 50,000 cigarette butts. For images of the astounding art installation and to learn more the issue visit, www.nomasbutts.org.
The Sad Truths:
- Cigarette butts are non biodegradable and toxic
- Billions of trees are cut down for making cigarettes
- More are cut down to make cigarette packages
- Approximately one tree is burned for tobacco curing per every 300 cigarettes made in developing countries, further contributing to deforestation
- Cigarette butts are the number one item picked up on California roadways
Learn more at #NoMasButts Know the Facts.
You can make a difference! There are some very simple ways you can get involved:
- Share this post
- Upload the #nomasbutts image to your Facebook profile
- Share an image on instagram
- Educate your friends and family
- Join a coastal or park clean up
- Clean up any time you’re out in nature (keep a garbage bag and gloves handy whenever you go out)
For images and other ways to get involved go to #NoMasButts Get Involved
Follow Tobacco Free CA on Facebook.
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These are the same people who want to ban cigarettes but Legalize Marijuana. Both use paper to roll the product. Nothing is said about marijuana nonetheless.
Do Marijuana cigarettes contain the same toxic chemicals as regular cigarettes? I don’t think they do.
What a great campaign! I’ve always wondered where all the cigarette butts go, but I never doubted for a moment that they hurt the environment as much as smoking hurts our bodies. I wish they weren’t so addictive so that people can easily quit, but since that is not the case, maybe it’s time that special disposal containers were created just for cigarettes and cigars!
I never made the connection between trees and cigarette production. Smoking is the worst thing you can do for your body…I quit years ago and it was the best decisions I ever made for myself.
Thanks for sharing this important message! I had no idea that so many trees are destroyed to manufacture cigarettes. It’s such a shame. I’ll be sure to share on my SM pages as well.
As someone who doesn’t smoke and is definitely against it, I am glad to see this kind of campaign happening. I have never put much thought into the butts harming the Earth, but it definitely makes logical sense. Thank you for telling us about this campaign and how we can help put an end to it.
And they are just plain gross! It baffles me that people think that tossing them on the ground is not littering. I’ve had workers at my house toss them beside my front porch for me to pick up later. Yuck!
The information in this post is so sad. I knew cigarette butts were a problem, but I never could’ve imagined they accounted for 25% of litter and cause so many environmental problems. It irritates me so badly when I see people just tossing them out car windows or on the sidewalks – trash cans, people, trash cans. This makes me hate tobacco even more than I already did! A great, eye opening post.
Yuck! They’re dirty and get everywhere and blow in from the neighbours. When you’re watching young children and toddlers outside you really have to be careful that they don’t pick them up.
I’m not a smoker, and don’t condone smoking, but I’m sure the butts could be made from natural materials (although, so too, could the tobacco).
What an interesting campaign, good luck!