The issue with cigarette butts

mountains-yellow 2
cigarettebutts-23

It is estimated that up to 8.9 billion butts* are littered in Australia every year.

Cigarette butts are the most littered item on the planet. This makes them the most abundant form of plastic waste in the world, with about 4.5 trillion individual butts polluting our global environment every year.

Each year, they are in the top two most reported litter item across Australia, and in FY24 represented a whopping 20.1% of all counted litter in our Litter Report. This is an increase of 3.9% on FY23 which counted cigarette butts at 16.2% of all reported litter nationally.

In FY24, cigarette butt litter counts were second only to soft plastic counts.

Title
cigarette-butts

THE PROBLEM

Littered butts pose a range of hazards and problems in natural environments, as outlined in a report by WWF*.

Many people do not realise that cigarette butts are made from non-biodegradable plastic. Once littered, butts accumulate in the marine environment and leach toxic materials. They break up slowly, shedding microfibres and taking up to 14 years to decompose.

Around one-third of nearly 100 chemicals that leach from cigarette butts are acutely or chronically toxic to aquatic species.

Cigarette butts have been found in the stomachs of birds, turtles, whales and fish, where they affect digestion and potentially lead to poisoning or starvation.

Birds that line their nests with discarded butts may experience long-term genetic damage and other health risks due to their exposure to toxic chemicals.

patter4

What can you do?

Organise a Clean Up

We’ll support your efforts to Clean Up any day of the year. Register to get your free kit.

Learn more
Bin your butt

This one is easy. If you’re a smoker, please bin your butt.

Other Actions You Can Take

In an Australian first, oyster mushrooms are being trained to feast on cigarette butts to break down their microplastics and create a reusable product!

  • A Product Stewardship Scheme for Butts?

A new report says Australia could halve the number of plastic cigarette butts entering the environment each year by making tobacco companies responsible for the pollution they help create.

Placing direct responsibility on tobacco companies through a mandatory national product stewardship scheme could prevent around four billion cigarette butts being littered.

The report says a levy of $0.004 (less than half a cent) per cigarette could raise $71 million per year to fund the product stewardship scheme. Alternatively, tobacco companies could be required to directly fund the scheme.

The report commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature Australia analyses seven strategies to reduce butt litter.

Read the report