If you needed yet another reason to quit smoking, here it is.
That’s crazy! I didn’t even realize they had plastic in them. Makes you wonder how many inconspicuous everyday items have the potential to become plastic waste.
Car tires are supposed to be bad. I remember reading each loses ~1kg in pulverised plastic dust over the lifetime?
Luckily, at least some of that is filtered from the air by people’s lungs.
Oh, do you know what else? Paint. Apparently, a lot of studies didn’t account for microplastics that came from several types of paint that end up in the environment. Scary stuff.
Like that paint that they use on highways that needs to be reapplied every so often because it disappears
Well, it doesn’t just disappear. Microplastics. Highways are doubly bad for plastic waste.
I didn’t even realized they had plastic in them.
you didn’t WHAT THE F???
No, I didn’t. Why the animosity? Do you perhaps go around looking at cigarette butts thinking “Oh… those have the potential to become plastic waste?”
I have on many occasions cleaned up the discarded cigarettes stubs of some inconsiderate shithead smoker, yes. But even without that, unless you live in Singapore, you should have enough awareness about whats going on around you to notice a pattern after a couple of years that you never see cigarette stubs in any form of decomposition, only the fibers coming apart.
Asbestos may be - but no cigarette bud I have ever seen has decomposed. So definitely none of the millions I’ve had to see has ever been made of organic materials. And I would have a hard time believing that I simply never saw an organic cigarette bud in an intermediate decomposition stage. So they haven’t been used in any significant amount during my lifetime.
So many people don’t realise the reality of cigarette waste.
“It’s just one small butt” adds up to:
- 4.5 TRILLION butts littered globally each year - - Enough to circle the Earth 300 times if placed end to end
“It’s just paper and cotton” - NOPE:
- The filter is plastic (cellulose acetate)
- Contains over 15,000 plastic fibres
- Takes up to 14 years to break down
- Even then, it just becomes microplastics
“Rain will wash it away” - Yeah, right into:
- Storm drains
- Rivers
- Oceans
- Fish (they mistake them for food)
“At least it’s not toxic” - Actually:
- One butt can contaminate up to 40 liters of water
- Contains arsenic, lead, nicotine, and other toxins
- Kills fish, birds, and other wildlife
I knew about the first part and the third and fourth, but I had no idea that it also contributed so much to plastic pollution.
I live in the US and it’s becoming more and more unusual in many places to see people smoking. As a result, I see fewer discarded cigarette butts than ever. Still not zero, but getting there.
It’s the hardest thing about traveling to Europe for me. I love being in Europe, but after living in a part of the US with almost no smokers it is jarring to smell cigarette smoke everywhere on the streets there.
I get nostalgic whenever I smell cigarettes, which is very rare these days.
I live in the U.S. too and I still see a ton here in Indiana, but we also apparently have a nicotine addiction epidemic here that no one talks about much.
As of 2022:
Nearly 29% of Indiana adults currently use tobacco. Combustible cigarettes are the most used tobacco product, followed by e-cigarettes.
I don’t know what the rate is here in Massachusetts, but it’s rare to have to smell cigarettes these days. I really think we’re more likely to (and my kids complain about the stench) encounter pot smokers these days. I can’t help but think that’s a good thing … but have to follow up each with an obligatory dad lecture on the health concerns with putting burning anything in your lungs
Edit: West Virginia, of course
I’m in Western NY, but even in NYC it’s less than 9%. The state offers a lot of support for quitting, perhaps that’s why.
Aren’t cigarettes like $15 a pack there? That probably has something to do with it.
Why do I need a solution to recognize a problem? Or are you saying that many addicts is a good thing?
It’s one of those big cultural shifts that has gone on in my life slowly but steadily. I recall my school bus driver would smoke doing his rounds, people smoking almost everywhere, even grocery stores. My family had lots of smokers, 3 out of my 4 grandparents smoked, all paid the piper, the habit led to their demise. Vending machines selling cigarettes everywhere. I recall it first was restricted on airplanes, with smoking sections separated with curtains, then in restaurants. A lot of it was ineffective and mostly symbolic, but then the biggest change was when California banned almost all indoor smoking in businesses, other states followed suit over the next decade. That combined with all the legal problems the tobacco industry had in the 90s has really caused a dramatic shift.
Is it just being replaced by other equally bad habits? I just found out that disposable vape pens are a thing. Those have plastics and electronics inside. I have no idea what the numbers there are.
Although vaping has become really big, there’s a lot more people quitting smoking than there are picking up vaping.
And vaping is not equally bad by a long shot. Cigarettes are far worse for you. Also, vaping isn’t nearly as annoying for the people around the user. I say all this as a cigarette smoker myself.
Those disposable vapes are disgustingly wasteful. Apparently you can take them apart and make them reusable or repurpose the battery, but very few people are going to mess with that.
there’s a lot more people quitting smoking than there are picking up vaping
Sadly, in Australia, this isn’t the case. We had very, very low smoking rates, and vaping has opened up the floodgates to new nicotine addicts, many, many of which never even tried cigarettes.
I’m pretty annoyed about it, to be honest.
Another generation who will reap the rewards of cancer, which will be a massive cost to society. Financially and emotionally.
I really hope we can stem the tide.
I never see people smoking in the Puget Sound area. I saw people smoking all over NYC when I was there.
If you know people at the right bodega you can get them much cheaper because they’re illegally imported from the south. Additionally, if someone is working in NYC they probably make better money than people in most other places, so $15 to them isn’t the same as $15 to me.
I was in the city a few years ago and my (latino in appearance) co-worker told me about a shop where he got some cheap packs. I (white in appearance) went to the shop about an hour later and was sold New York cigarettes at a ball-busting price. That’s just the reality some places.
If you’re curious, you can look at the bottom of the cellophane to find the tax stamp, which will tell you the state they were taxed for sale in
I love smoking. I know it’s killing me. I realize it stinks to other people. I never smoke indoors. I try my best to be considerate of others and never throw my butts on the ground.
But it’s getting a bit ridiculous the demonizing of smokers in the US. If I walk to the edge of a business’s property where there is literally no one and smoke a cigarette, I shouldn’t be harassed by cops or security to cross the street, go several blocks away, or similar.
LE are just assholes. I vape now but have dreamed of just hand rolling cigs ahead of time. Biodegradable, smells better, tastes better
Agreed on first point.
But when you hand roll do you use those tubes with a filter? I doubt it since you said biodegradable. The only times I hand rolled were when I was broke. A bag of Bugler with papers was like $2.50 back in the day. Roughly 50 cigarettes the way I rolled. But damn that shit killed my lungs. I’m sure a nicer brand would be better all around but no filter smokes fuck me up.
I thought tires were responsible for like 25% of micro plastics.
Never mind. I just read what I wrote, and realized they’re two different things.
Aren’t microplastics from car tires more common?
I thought so too, and maybe they are using a different metric in this article, but I couldn’t tell you since their source URL is a deadline…
This article is quite likely fake news. The first paper cited only says they’re the most common pollution on beaches.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0013935119300787
