Cigarette butts the biggest pollutant in the ocean

According to the new NBC News report, butts are first among the pollutants and waste produced by humans, and each year they end up going to the seas and ocean. The majority of the 5.6 trillion cigarettes produced per year has a filter made of cellulose acetate that takes more than ten years to decompose. 

Let's imagine, therefore, what happens on our beautiful beaches where people bury cigarette butts or simply throw them away. 

The environmental organization Ocean Conservacy, which finances the cleaning of beaches, reveals that in 32 years, 60 million butts were found and these could destroy marine ecosystems and aquatic life in general contaminating rivers and waterways.

It is impossible to know how many cigarettes were discarded in nature, but many remains are found in the stomachs of birds, fish and turtles and are one of the main causes of death of these animals. The problem, however, does not seem to affect smokers who continue to behave incorrectly. 

Source

Source

If little or nothing can be done to prevent people from smoking because everyone takes care (or neglects) of themselves, with the Cigarette Butt Pollution project, founded by the Public Health professor at San Diego State University, Thomas Novotny, in partnership with a group of environmental lawyers, it is sought to prohibit the production and marketing of these non-biodegradable filters but, for now, only conflicts of interest prevail among the lobbies financed by the tobacco companies that only care that the business is profitable