“Save The Butts- Waste to value” campaign is about bringing a local solution to a global problem, whereby removing the cigarette butts from beaches we take care of the oceans for a healthier and cleaner environment. And transforming this high polluted waste into a construction material, implementing circular economy.
- Cigarette butts make up 30% to 40% of all items collected in cleanups around the world.
- Out of the 6 trillion cigarette butts produced every year, 4.5 trillion of them wind up in our forests, beaches and waterways.
- A third actually makes it into the bin.
Cigarette filters — the part that looks like white cotton — are made of a type of plastic called cellulose acetate, which takes anywhere from 18 months to 15 years to degrade, depending on the type of environment it has been discarded in. And they contain more than 7000 chemicals which pollute soil and oceans.
After the fibers erode, they join the already-huge collection of microplastics plaguing our environment, our oceans and waterways. One cigarette butt pollutes 500 lt of water.
Wildlife and sealife are directly impacted by this pollution as the animals will ingest this poisoning item.
To help prevent this ecological disaster, Goumbook organizes beach clean-ups to collect them. And with our partners, we transformed them into a construction material, bringing value to waste. Circular economy is the key to this campaign as cigarette butts are transformed into something valuable, a construction material which is recyclable and can be used instead of plywood avoiding deforestation.
Whether it is community beach clean-ups or corporate beach clean-ups, there is always a way to be involved in “Save The Butts – Waste to value” campaign and be part of this great momentum by removing cigarette butts from beaches and have them transformed into something valuable.
Companies and hotels are also great partners in being Permanent Collection Points where cigarette butts are collected on a monthly basis. This is a way to combat environmental pollution at source and reduce waste going to landfill by collecting cigarette butts in a designated way and redirect them towards circularity.
These two way of actions, beach clean-ups and Permanent collection points, are great ways to bring value to waste and also show how circular economy is a virtuous way of treating a highly polluting waste.
Together we can do more and join beach clean-ups to remove cigarette butts from our beautiful environment which we have to take care of !