We all know that smoking is bad for our health, but it’s also bad for our planet. Cigarette butts are the most littered plastic item in the entire world! It’s a common misconception that cigarette butts quickly biodegrade. In reality, the filter is made out of plastic cellulose acetate fibres.

Since cigarettes are so easily littered on the street, they quickly end up in our waterways and eventually, our moana. They leach nicotine and heavy metals into our waters and end up as microplastic pollution.

It is estimated by Keep New Zealand Beautiful that we have about 10 billion cigarette butts strewn across our country. That’s about 2,000 cigarette butts out in our nature per New Zealander! This is despite the fact that New Zealand has one of the lowest tobacco smoking rankings in the entire world, showing that this is a massive issue worldwide!