{"id":4183,"date":"2018-09-07T20:36:02","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T20:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4183"},"modified":"2018-09-07T20:36:02","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T20:36:02","slug":"cigarette-butts-the-no-1-cause-of-beach-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4183","title":{"rendered":"Cigarette butts the No. 1 cause of beach pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is why I have ZERO sympathy for smokers complaining about beach smoking bans. They really have no one to blame but themselves for smoking being banned on beaches.<\/p>\n

Here is an NBC story<\/a> about the latest campaign to ban plastic straws. There’s a good argument for banning plastic straws, especially when paper straws are a perfectly usable alternative.<\/p>\n

But, the article points out that cigarette butts have been and continue to be the champion contaminant in the oceans and on the beaches.<\/p>\n

This story makes an interesting point, that flicking butts away on the ground is a pretty deeply ingrained behaviour that’s hard to stop. A tobacco industry study confirmed this.<\/p>\n

From NBC News:<\/a><\/p>\n

In industry focus groups, some smokers said they thought filters were biodegradable, possibly made of cotton; others said they needed to grind the butts out on the ground, to assure they didn\u2019t set a refuse can afire; others said they were so \u201cdisgusted\u201d by the sight or smell of cigarette ashtrays, they didn\u2019t want to dispose of their smokes that way. In one focus group cited in industry documents, smokers said tossing their butts to the ground was \u201ca natural extension of the defiant\/rebellious smoking ritual.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to this story:<\/p>\n

The Ocean Conservancy has sponsored a beach cleanup<\/a> every year since 1986. For 32 consecutive years, cigarette butts have been the single most collected item on the world\u2019s beaches, with a total of more than 60 million collected over that time. That amounts to about one-third of all collected items and more than plastic wrappers, containers, bottle caps, eating utensils and bottles, combined.<\/p>\n

People sometimes dump that trash directly on to beaches but, more often, it washes into the oceans from countless storm drains, streams and rivers around the world. The waste often disintegrates into microplastics easily consumed by wildlife. Researchers have found the detritus in some 70 percent of seabirds and 30 percent of sea turtles.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Actually, I never thought of that before, that the butts are washing into the oceans though sewers.<\/p>\n

Anyway, some people are taking an interesting tack on the cigarette butt problem — get rid of cigarette filters altogether.<\/p>\n

Yeah, now that you think about it. Why not? It’s been long proven that cigarette butts serve no useful purpose other than trying to trick smokers that their cigarettes have been made safer. No one really buys that anymore, so why keep the filters around. The Truth Initiative has proposed simply getting rid of cigarette filters.<\/p>\n

So cigarettes butts continue being a huge pollution problem, despite the precipitous drop in smoking rates in the West.. Anyway, I’ll keep an eye on this campaign to get rid of cigarette butts and see if it goes anywhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is why I have ZERO sympathy for smokers complaining about beach smoking bans. They really have no one to blame but themselves for smoking being banned on beaches. Here is an NBC story about the latest campaign to ban plastic straws. There’s a good argument for banning plastic straws, especially when paper straws are … Continue reading Cigarette butts the No. 1 cause of beach pollution<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[324,897,571],"tags":[673,899,898],"class_list":["post-4183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cigarette-butts","category-cigarette-filters","category-littering","tag-cigarette-butts","tag-cigarette-filters","tag-littering"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/180824-oregon-cigarette-cleanup-al-1646_c1ffc2ed87fd0f3222c4f11621d4da7b.fit-2000w.jpg?fit=2000%2C1284&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-15t","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3433,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3433","url_meta":{"origin":4183,"position":0},"title":"Cigarettes not just bad for your health, they’re bad for the environment","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"August 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Something that gets overlooked a lot about cigarettes -- their effect on the environment. An organization called DoSomething.org, (Seems to be related to Truth.com) is highlighting the truly shocking and amazing impact cigarettes have on the environment -- mostly from the filters being tossed away on the ground. The group\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "beaches"","block_context":{"text":"beaches","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=570"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/20150805143138enprn255631-gtfo-litter-90-1438785098mr.jpg?fit=500%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3580,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3580","url_meta":{"origin":4183,"position":1},"title":"Water wheel removes 4 million cigarette butts from Baltimore Harbor","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"October 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Something that doesn't get talked a lot about the scourge of tobacco is the littering and pollution problem caused by millions upon millions of cigarette butts being tossed aside into the environment. Cigarette butts are the No. 1 item by weight cleaned up on U.S. beaches. Yeah, those little tiny\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Baltimore"","block_context":{"text":"Baltimore","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=732"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/waterwheelimage1-1.jpg?fit=730%2C448&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/waterwheelimage1-1.jpg?fit=730%2C448&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/waterwheelimage1-1.jpg?fit=730%2C448&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/waterwheelimage1-1.jpg?fit=730%2C448&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2578,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2578","url_meta":{"origin":4183,"position":2},"title":"Group calls on UK to ban smoking on beaches","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"October 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 A number of entities -- states, parks and cities -- have banned smoking on beaches in the U.S. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is primarily over the littering issues more than any secondhand smoke effects. And as I said earlier, I have little or not sympathy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Smoking bans on beaches"","block_context":{"text":"Smoking bans on beaches","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=356"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/beachcigarette.jpg?fit=560%2C371&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/beachcigarette.jpg?fit=560%2C371&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/beachcigarette.jpg?fit=560%2C371&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2381,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2381","url_meta":{"origin":4183,"position":3},"title":"Oregon set to ban smoking on all state beaches","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"July 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow, 360-plus miles of those famous Oregon beaches are set to become smokefree. The state earlier this year banned smoking in its state parks, and it considering adding state beaches to that ban (Almost all of Oregon's beaches are open and free to the public). If people are caught smoking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "cigarette butts"","block_context":{"text":"cigarette butts","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=324"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cigbuttsbeach_daniellerichardet.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cigbuttsbeach_daniellerichardet.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cigbuttsbeach_daniellerichardet.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cigbuttsbeach_daniellerichardet.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cigbuttsbeach_daniellerichardet.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3632,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3632","url_meta":{"origin":4183,"position":4},"title":"Butts to Watts: Turning cigarette butts into something useful — energy","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"December 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"While traveling through Northern California for the holidays, I saw an interesting sign at an Interstate 5 rest stop. It was a sign for \"Butts to Watts.\" I had never heard of this program. It's some partnership between CalTrans and some outfit actually called \"Cigarette Butt Services\" to take used\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "CalTrans"","block_context":{"text":"CalTrans","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=744"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/DSC01420.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/DSC01420.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/DSC01420.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/DSC01420.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/DSC01420.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2574,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2574","url_meta":{"origin":4183,"position":5},"title":"London mayor frosty to smoking ban in parks","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"October 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 London, England, not the London that's home to Joe Thornton and Drew Doughty, has started up a huge brouhaha by proposing\u00a0to ban smoking in parks. The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, called the proposal \"taking bossiness too far.\" \"People should be discouraged from smoking but I think actively to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "London"","block_context":{"text":"London","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=353"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/london2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/london2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/london2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/london2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/london2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}