Put Your Butt Where it Belongs

Yes, you’ve seen the cigarette butt tossed out of a car window at the stop light, or flicked onto the ground.  But do you know what happens to those cigarette butts after they’re littered?  The get washed by the rain into the storm drains, and eventually into the waterways of Virginia.

Some people thing that a cigarette butt is made of natural fibers that will dissolve before it does any harm, or that it’s biodegradable.

Some people think that a cigarette butt is so small that it can’t do much harm.

But those small cigarette butts are made of cellulose acetate, and they do not biodegrade!  They accumulate and clog!  Cigarette butts remain the most littered item in the U.S. and across the globe. Dropping cigarette butts and cigar tips to the ground, putting them in planters, and disposing of them in waterways is littering.

Most cigarette littering happens at “transition points.” Tobacco products are most often littered in areas where a smoker must extinguish what they’re smoking before proceeding, such as outside of a retail store, a restaurant, bars, and office buildings. They also litter them when accessing beaches, parks, recreation areas, and especially at roadside rest areas and parking lots.  A cigarette butt receptacle can make a huge impact at those areas — these transition points.

So we want to help you tackle those transition points!  If you have a business or work with a business or public space where cigarette litter is a problem, submit your name to be entered in a drawing for a cigarette butt receptacle.  Then make the commitment to make a difference!  Ten names will be chosen this month to receive a standing receptacle shipped directly to you at no cost.