Although recently there were campaigns for picking up on plastic straws, it is not the biggest threat to ocean pollution. It is only just 0.02% of the ocean’s waste. There are more threats has to be cracked down.
According to NBC news of the bigger threats appears to be cigarette butts. Further, they have stated that it has managed to avoid regulations so far and number one poisonous substance caused by humans.
Cigarette filters are the main issue. Professor of public health, Thomas Novotny at San Diego State University told NBC news had “no health benefits” and also he further added that “seems like a no-brainer to me that we can’t continue to allow this.”
Each year 5.6 trillion cigarettes are made around the world which can take more than a decade to decompose. These filters which are made with a collection of cellulose acetate was the most collected item from beaches to date figuring 60 million from 1986.
Filters which were produced in the 1900s to reduce health concerns of man had made today’s biggest concern of pollution.
It was found from the studies made by professor Novotry in 2011, that it was difficult to stop littering cigarette butts although there are campaigns made for anti-littering and permanent ashtrays were placed in public areas.
To change attitudes made towards cigarette filters, a campaign called the Cigarette Butt Pollution Project wrote on their website as “Cigarette butt waste has polluted our beaches, parks, and communities long enough – it’s time to take action!”
To tackle this problem around the world most countries have made certain attempts. In the US, to prevent these pollution made by cigarette butts, they have made certain steps to pass certain lawsuits to ban cigarette filters and raised costs of cigarette packets to cover the costs involved in cleaning up the leftovers.
In a theme park in France started to train some of its birds to pick up the litter and cigarette butts, earlier this month to show society that “nature itself can teach us to take care of the environment.”
Of course, the campaign started to clean up plastic straws is exactly good news to show the easiness to start from the beginning from your daily life. There are so many things us to do to minimize this crisis. To solve the situation on cigarette butts will be a great idea.
