Cigarette butts are one of the most collected type of litter from beaches.

Cigarette butts degrade the beach environment and have important negative environmental consequences on marine life (e.g., ingestion by fish, birds, and marine mammals can cause toxicity problems.

Cigarette butts takes at least 5 years to break down in seawater. Birds and aquatic animals can mistake the butts as food, resulting in serious digestive problems that may lead to death. Butts have been found in the stomachs of young birds, sea turtles and other marine creatures.

Do you know that the majority of cigarette butts or filters are made from fibrous material called cellulose acetates, a kind of plastic that are thin tows that are packed tightly to form a filter? The purpose of the filter is to trap toxic substances from the cigarette before it enters the smoker’s lung.

UAE beaches are generally clean and litter free, the authorities are doing regular clean-up of public areas. There are hefty littering fines. However, still we can see, hundreds of cigarette butts carelessly discarded on public beaches 

During a recent visit to a beach here, I saw that the area had several cigarette stubs.  I did a cleanup activity by picking up the cigarette butts.

Let us all be responsible citizens and do our part to help keep our planet

 clean. Moreover, we don’t need a special day for cleanup, if you see it, just take a small effort to clean it.

 

Regards

Arjun Anand