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How many times have you seen in one day someone discarding cigarette butts out the window of a moving car, or even when they are standing beside a trashcan? For me, way too many times.

I have seen too many people toss cigarette butts straight onto the ground to not push for a change in respect for our diminishing environment and for the safety of animals. Cigarette butts are one of the most common types of trash I see when walking in the park, streets, parking lots, and a lot more places and it needs to stop.

These butts are forgotten about maybe because they are so small or because it is such a common litter action. Besides the fact that cigarettes are harmful to humans, the earth and animals are also getting the butt end of the stick.

There are many types of chemicals in butts that are toxic to animals and the environment. These chemicals are found in the filters of cigarettes and can kill plant growth and living creatures/organisms.

The next time you walk on a street or through the park, look to see how many butts are on the ground and imagine how easy it would be for a child to pick it up and ingest it.

Ingesting a cigarette butt can cause vomiting and even convulsion. Dr. Dannielle Green is a lecturer in ecology and director of the applied ecology research group in the school of life sciences at Anglia Ruskin University.

She states that 5.6 trillion in the cigarettes are being smoked each year in the U.S., while two thirds of those butts not being disposed properly. Doing the math, that is about 4.5 trillion butts.

This is a bigger issue than most people think not only for the fact that it bad for the environment, but also how long it takes to decompose. Lots of people think that butts decompose quickly because it’s just a filter and paper, but the end of a cigarette is much more than that.

Looking into the specifics about the butt, we will find that there is hundreds of toxic chemicals, plastic, and cellulose acetate (which is a biodegradable substance but still takes 10 years to decompose). Thirty to 40% of litter is cigarette butts in the coastal regions and the urban regions (Green, 2020).

Not only do we find butts on the sidewalk, but we can also find them in rivers and oceans. Butts get caught up in runoffs and are sent to the ocean and rivers which makes things difficult for sea life and river life. The chemicals that are at the end of a cigarette can flow out and poison fish and other water-dwelling animals.

I have seen many instances where people do not care about their surrounding environment when throwing a cigarette butt out the window. Personally, this is when I decided to be extra aware of butts laying on the ground.

As I am walking inside a store to get a snack, I was past this car with the window open. Walking past the car a man decides it is a good time to throw his half-smoked cigarette out the window. It landed right at the tips of my toes with smoke and an ember still burning.

I thought about picking it up and throwing it back in his car, but I didn’t want to start anything or accidentally burn the guy. So, I picked it up and put it out, walked over to the trash that was right beside the car and threw it away. The kicker is, I was at a gas station and his wife was pumping gas on the other side of the car.

As I reflect on all that I have seen, it is important to keep this earth clean. Some ways that we can reduce the number of butts being littered is to do trash clean up, but do not forget to pick up those small butts.

They are just as important to pick up as plastic bags. More ash trays in not only streets and parks, but also in cars. Spread awareness about how toxic butts are to animals and plants. This is important to me because I respect this earth and its beauty; cigarette butts are the eyesore of this world.

Allison Marie Allred is a 2019 graduate from Haywood Christian Academy and is currently a junior at Western Carolina University majoring in Integrated Health Science Pre-Professional for physical therapy.

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