CIGARETTES
- Cigarette butts comprise 30%-40% of items collected in annual coastal/urban cleanups.
- Cigarette butts are the most prominently littered item on U.S. roadways, retail areas, storm drains, loading docks, construction sites and recreational areas.
- In 2019, cigarette butts were the most littered item in U.S. beaches and waterways, with close to a million (900,178) pieces collected.
- 4,211,962 cigarette butts were collected on beaches and waterways globally in 2019, making them the world’s second most common type of litter after food wrappers.
- 12,089 cigarette lighters, 58,672 cigar tips and 33,865 tobacco packages or wrappers were removed from U.S. waterways in 2015.
- 86% of smokers consider cigarette butts to be litter, but 75% of smokers throw them on the ground or out of a car window.
- Smokers litter as many as 65% of their cigarette butts.
E-CIGARETTES
- E-cigarette-related waste is potentially a more serious environmental threat than cigarette butts because it contains metal, circuitry, single-use plastic cartridges, batteries and toxic chemicals in e-liquids.
- E-cigarette manufacturers do not provide guidance to consumers on how to dispose of used devices or pod/cartridge products, and there are no receptacles or specific processes in place.
- A Truth Initiative survey found that almost half (46.9%) of e-cigarette device owners said that the e-cigarette/vape device they currently use does not provide any disposal information such as where to send used batteries or empty pods. The survey also found that more than half (57.8%) of those who had vaped in the past 30 days found it inconvenient to dispose of e-cigarette waste responsibly.