Page 26 - Litter Toolkit

4.6

Cigarette litter

Keep Wales Tidy’s Street Cleanliness Surveys indicate School Examples:
that smoking-related litter, primarily cigarette ends, ACTIONS: Let’s Go
was found on average in 80.2% of streets in 2016-17 Ysgol Y Ddraig in the Vale of Glamorgan investigated
making it the most common type of litter found on our smoking-related litter in their community and on the Investigate your school grounds. Have you found
streets. local beach. They created a video, sharing their views smoking-related litter? How do you think it got
and raising awareness of the problem. The cigarette there?
Cigarette ends are small and when they are discarded, ends collected on a clean-up were used by artist
many fall in between paving stones and the cracks in Nathan Wyburn to create a self-portrait. Look around your local community for smoking-
pavements where they can become trapped or end up related litter hotspots. Where are they and why?
down drains, causing blockages and flooding. Could you hold a poster competition in your
school to highlight the problem and ask your local
In 2016, cigarette ends were the second most common authority to display the winning entries?
type of litter found on our beaches during the MCS
Great British Beach Clean. They can be mistaken for Or could you make a link with a nearby organisation
food and ingested by marine animals – they’ve been or business to raise awareness of the littering
found in the digestive system of whales, dolphins, sea problem? Investigate if you could work in
birds and turtles. partnership on a project or adopt the area e.g. local
bus stop, and get help from the local authority and
Cigarette filters are not biodegradable. They are made Narberth Community Primary School in Pembrokeshire businesses.
of cellulose acetate which takes up to 15 years to break created a smoking awareness campaign called “No
down. Throughout their life, cigarette filters leach out Butts about it - Bin it!” Pupils created posters and
their toxic chemicals, which can contaminate water identified that there was no safe place to dispose of
supplies as well as our land and seas. cigarettes in the community. They then contacted the
local authority to raise the issue.
Smoking-related litter can also ignite; many fires
occur every year because of smokers discarding their Pupils at Glyncoed Primary School in Cardiff carried
used cigarettes without making sure that they’re fully out a hot-spot check of their local bus stop area. They
extinguished. were shocked to find 336 discarded cigarette butts.
Ash Wales – Smokefree School Gates