Ireland’s bathing season starts on June 1st and Clean Coasts are launching a campaign asking people to dispose of their smoking related litter correctly to protect our environment and marine life.
May 31st was World No Tobacco Day, a day in which the World Health Organisation highlighted the harmful impact tobacco has on human health and our environment. Tobacco growing, manufacturing and use poison our water, soil, beaches and city streets with chemicals, toxic waste, cigarette butts, including microplastics, and e-cigarette waste.
In Ireland, cigarette butts are the most common item found on Ireland’s beaches and they account to for almost 50% of all discarded waste in the country. For the past several years, cigarette butts have been the top litter item found on Irish beaches during the Big Beach Clean, the end of bathing season call to action sponsored by Irish business Cully and Sully.
Cigarette butts and filters are often assumed to be biodegradable, but in fact, one cigarette butt might take over a decade to decompose. Cigarette filters are made of a plastic called cellulose acetate, which does not biodegrade and can remain in the environment for very long periods of time in the form of microplastics. Globally littered cigarette butts amount to an estimated 0.3 million tons of microfibers released per year.
When ingested, the hazardous chemicals in microplastics cause long-term mortality in marine life, including birds, fish, mammals, plants and reptiles. According to research, just one cigarette butt per litre of water leaches enough toxins to kill half the freshwater or saltwater fish exposed to it.
In addition to cigarette butts, volunteers hosting clean-ups have noticed that incorrectly discarded vapes are also increasing. Vapes are made of materials such as plastic, rubber and metal that don’t break down naturally, and 1.3 million single-use vapes are thrown away every week.
Ireland has amazing beaches and coastal landscapes, including 94 Blue Flag and 65 Green Coast Award sites, and everybody can play a key role in protecting them. Clean Coasts are highlighting the work of community groups to tackle smoking litter on their local beach, and hope to inspire other groups and communities to take action in their local community.
Two such groups that worked to create awareness locally about smoking related litter are Bettystown Tidy Towns in Co. Meath, and Keep Our Beaches Clean in Louisburgh, Co. Mayo. These community groups took the time to raise awareness within their communities about the impact smoking related litter and why it should be disposed of correctly, with pilot projects that entailed the installation of cigarette bins and informational stickers in key spots in their local area.
Clean Coasts released resources for people to learn more about the issue and create their own campaign. Moreover, they are inviting Clean Coasts groups and communities living in an area affected by the issue to get in touch if they would like to host a similar initiative on their local beach, by visiting their website at www.cleancoasts.org.
