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Cigarette butts left in grass and soil can harm nearby plant growth, according to a new study. The study found that a cigarette butt can cut down the germination, or development, of plants, adding to concerns about discarded cigarette remnants as an under-acknowledged, but widespread, pollutant. A common ingredient in cigarette filters makes them among the most common man-made contaminants that affect the ground where they are discarded whether they were smoked or not. Cigarette butts left in grass and soil can harm nearby plant growth, according to a new study. The study led by Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England found that a cigarette butt can cut down the germination, or develo

Ocean pollution is a very serious issue, and one that seems to be cropping up a lot in the news at the moment. Often, when we hear the term "ocean pollution", it's straws, bottles, and other plastic garbage that come to mind — but there's another sort of waste that's far worse and has, so far, received far less attention than it warrants. The spotlight is now on cigarette filters. As a result, many people are under the false assumption that cigarette filters are biodegradable. Shutterstock At first, they may seem small and relatively harmless, but they can cause irreversible damage to oceans and wildlife in general, particularly in the numbers in which they're currently found. NBC News relea

The plastic straw has been at the forefront of conversations about damaging man-made waste but cigarette butts have turned out to be an even bigger problem. An estimated 4.5 trillion butts are littered globally each year, The BBC reports, and their effects are incredibly harmful. A study led by Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge found that cigarette butts left in grass and soil cause stunt plant growth. The study also suggests cigarette butts are the most pervasive man-made contaminant and the most littered item worldwide. Researchers found that this waste cuts down the germination success of grass by 10 percent and shortens the shoot length of clover by up to 28 percent. Most cigarette b

Keep it clean, no butts It’s time to come clean in the Central City. This is the new message behind the Cape Town Central City Improvement District’s (CCID) annual #KeepItClean campaign, run by its Urban Management Department. Urban Management is one of the four operational divisions of the CCID that delivers top-up services to those of the City of Cape Town. The campaign launched on Tuesday 24 April with an activation in St George’s Mall, visually demonstrating what 240kg of cigarette butts looks like – one month of butts collected just from the 270 CCID-branded cigarette bins placed around the Central City. According to manager Richard Beesley the annual campaign is essential in creating p

The National Council Against Smoking is working with Greenpeace Africa to raise awareness about the plastic in cigarette butts as part of Plastic-free July. They are leveraging on the global campaign, encouraging people to rethink the way they use plastic, by starting a campaign on their VUMA.EARTH platform, which calls for a ban on cigarette butts in South Africa. “It may not be widely known, but cigarette butts are themselves made out of a form of plastic – cellulose acetate. They can take months or even years to break down into smaller pieces of plastic but will not biodegrade,” said Savera Kalideen, Executive Director National Council Against Smoking. The tobacco remnant is biodegradable

The National Council Against Smoking is working with Greenpeace Africa to raise awareness about the plastic in cigarette butts as part of Plastic-free July. A Spokesperson Savera Kalideen says they are leveraging on the global campaign, encouraging people to rethink the way they use plastic, by starting a campaign which calls for a ban on cigarette butts. Did you know? Cigarette butts are themselves made out of a form of plastic - cellulose acetate. Cigarette butts are the most frequent item of litter picked up on beaches and other water bodies worldwide. They can take months or even years to break down into smaller pieces of plastic but will not biodegrade. The tobacco remnant is biodegrada

Durban- A campaign against cigarette butts has been launched by environmental organisation Greenpeace Africa in conjunction with the National Council Against Smoking. The initiative aims to raise awareness over the use of plastic in cigarette butts as part of Plastic-free July. The organisations are calling for government and tobacco companies to take caution and act now. “In line with the polluter pays principle, tobacco companies that produce cigarettes need to take responsibility for the collection and appropriate disposal of cigarette butts, and not shift this responsibility to municipalities, and the taxpayer as they currently do,” said Savera Kalideen, Executive Director National Coun

The National Council Against Smoking and Greenpeace Africa are together working on a campaign to raise awareness about the plastic in cigarette butts as part of Plastic-free July. The organisations have started a #BanTheButt campaign on their Vuma.Earth platform. “It may not be widely known, but cigarette butts are themselves made out of a form of plastic – cellulose acetate. They can take months or even years to break down into smaller pieces of plastic but will not biodegrade,” said Savera Kalideen, executive director of the National Council Against Smoking. “Cigarette butts are the most frequent item of litter picked up on beaches and other water bodies worldwide. In South Africa, cigar

THE results of the 2018 International Coastal Clean-up, which annually took place during September have been released and once again,the biggest pollutants are broken down plastic and foam pieces. “The main cause of litter on our beaches and in the marine environment is irresponsible human behaviour. The improper disposal of waste and a lack of waste management infrastructure are the two biggest issues that need to be addressed and corrected,” said John Kieser, Sustainability Manager of Plastics SA and Western Cape ICC coordinator of this annual event. “During the 2018 event, 19 563 volunteers collected 241 425 items nationally in audited clean-ups that took place along the country’s 2 500km

Sign our petition: https://www.vuma.earth/petitions/ban-the-ban-in-south-africa

Sign our petition: https://www.vuma.earth/petitions/ban-the-ban-in-south-africa

The environmental impact of cigarette butts If you attend a market, festival or any outdoor event, chances are you’ll find a few cigarette butts on the floor. While people frown upon littering, cigarette butts still tend to be dropped on the floor without much thought. This can have long-term negative consequences on the environment. While some cities, such as Cape Town, provide bins every 100 metres on the street for litter and cigarette butts, the epidemic is still widespread. Some cities have even tried to make disposing of cigarette butts fun – London installed a few poll boxes where you could vote for your favourite football player by inserting your cigarette butts into the right box. D

The mounting cost of keeping the inner city clean was the driving force behind the Cape Town Central City Improvement District’s (CCID) cleaning campaign, #KeepItClean, which started this week and runs until the end of the year. CCID chief executive Tasso Evangelinos said R30 000 was spent daily in keeping the city clean. “The CCID sweeps and picks up, on average, 2 400kg of litter from the streets in town seven days a week at a cost of R30 000 a day, which amounts to nearly R11 million a year. What a waste,” Evangelinos said. He said the aim of the campaign was to raise public awareness about the importance and ever-increasing cost of keeping the central city clean. “We collect bags dumped

2018 International Coastal Clean-up results reveal SA's top pollutants. The results of the 2018 International Coastal Clean-up, which took place on 15 September, showed that broken down plastic pieces, foam pieces, cigarette butts, bottle caps continue to be some of the biggest pollutants on SA beaches. “For more than two decades, thousands of South African volunteers have been joining the rest of the world on the third Saturday of September to remove, collect and document the litter from our country’s coastlines. During the 2018 event, 19,563 volunteers collected 241,425 items nationally in audited clean-ups that took place along the country’s 2,500km long coastline,” reports John Kieser, s

THE DIRTY TRUTH ABOUT CIGARETTE FILTERS Blue smoke curls up from my terrace. After the last puff, a flesh-coloured filter is thrown carefully into the garden, disappearing between the roses and the rhododendrons. I’m shocked. I think it’s messy, cigarette filters in my garden, on the street and on the beach. “Don’t worry, it will disappear” is the standard reply to my mild disgust. And that always silences me: if it’s going to disappear, am I not being too critical to make a point of it? My shock deepens after reading the dirty truth about cigarette filters on the CNN website. The reality? There is cellulose acetate in cigarette filters, a kind of plastic that only disappears under extreme

The National Council Against Smoking is working with Greenpeace Africa to raise awareness about the plastic in cigarette butts as part of Plastic-free July. We are leveraging on the global campaign, encouraging people to rethink the way they use plastic, by starting a campaign on their VUMA.EARTH platform which calls for a ban on cigarette butts (#BanTheButt). “It may not be widely known, but cigarette butts are themselves made out of a form of plastic – cellulose acetate. They can take months or even years to break down into smaller pieces of plastic but will not biodegrade,” said Savera Kalideen, Executive Director National Council Against Smoking. The tobacco remnant is biodegradable beca

New European research has found that fathers who smoke before their children are conceived or born could be affecting the sperm quality of their future sons. Carried out by researchers at Bispebjerg Frederiksberg Hospital in Denmark, the new study was a follow-up analysis of 778 young men all 19 years of age who had been born to mothers registered in the Danish National Birth Cohort between 1996 and 2002. The researchers collected information on the parents' smoking status based on a maternal report made around gestational week 16. The men's semen was assessed according to criteria set by the World Health Organisation which includes sperm concentration, total sperm count, morphology (the siz

Among young people, the short-term health consequences of smoking include respiratory and non respiratory effects, addiction to nicotine, and the associated risk of other drug use. Long-term health consequences of youth smoking are reinforced by the fact that most young people who smoke regularly continue to smoke throughout adulthood. Cigarette smokers have a lower level of lung function than those persons who have never smoked. Smoking reduces the rate of lung growth. In adults, cigarette smoking causes heart disease and stroke. Studies have shown that early signs of these diseases can be found in adolescents who smoke. Smoking hurts young people's physical fitness in terms of both perform