cigarette butts per 100 m of shoreline.
Average observed in a Swiss national study published by the FOEN in 2022.
It falls in a second.
Its impact stays.
The numbers speak. The gesture counts.
The problem is here.
Original video supplied by EcoMégot.
Smoker or non-smoker, this concerns us all.
In September 2018, the Lucky Wagon association collected nearly 17,500 cigarette butts in three hours in central Sion.
Read the City of Sion document · 17,500 cigarette butts collected (PDF, p. 25)
cigarette butts discarded in the environment
since you opened this page.
cigarette butts discarded in the environment worldwide.
The filter is not cotton.
Cellulose acetate contributes to microplastic pollution.
As high as
the Matterhorn.
223 900
cigarette butts, each 2 cm long, lined up measure
4,478 metres: the altitude of the Matterhorn.
A comparison to visualise the scale of the problem, not an estimate of cigarette butts discarded in Valais.
Illustrative assumption: 2 cm per cigarette butt. Compared with altitude, not a climbing route.Numbers.
Sources.
Sources and calculation method
WHO · World No Tobacco Day 2022 : an estimated 4,500 billion discarded cigarette butts per year. Over 365 days, that is about 12.33 billion per day and 142,700 per second.
FOEN · Swiss shores, 2022 : around 20 cigarette butts per 100 metres of shoreline in the national study. This result is not specific to Valais.
Why not display “1 cigarette butt = 500 litres”?
Toxicity depends on the environment and measurement protocol. A universal volume would give a misleading impression of precision. The message remains simple: cigarette butts release pollutants and must be collected.
Our results in Valais
Our collection volumes and results will be shared when verified measurements are available.
In September 2018, the Lucky Wagon association collected nearly 17,500 cigarette butts in three hours in Sion city centre.
This collection was carried out by Lucky Wagon. Source: City of Sion · General Council minutes, 18 June 2019, p. 25 (PDF)