Butt Blitz 2020!

Every second, tens of thousands of cigarette butts are littered.

Every butt can take up to 15 years to decompose.
In 10 years there might be more cigarette butts in the ocean than fish. Cigarette butts are the number one most littered item in Canada.

Help us clean up our communities – our world is not an ashtray!

In partnership with UnSmoke Canada and The Great Outdoors Fund, Take Pride Winnipeg! is pleased to host our first annual 


Butt Blitz August 15, 2020.

Register with us by emailing: carrie@takepride.mb.ca or calling 204 956 7590.

Volunteers will be provided with free bags and gloves for the cleanup. You'll choose your own location for your personal cleanup, and clean as long as you wish.  

We ask you to please *count* your butts (as best you can) to help us with our reporting.  Once the Blitz is complete, contact Carrie with your results, and we'll make arrangements to pick up what you've collected so we can weigh all the butts at once!

Share your photos on social media, and tag @takepridewpg for a chance to win great prizes from local businesses!

FACTS:

  • Cigarette butts are one of the most littered items in the world.
  • Cigarette butts are made of cellulose acetate, a type of bioplastic, and tens of thousands of them are littered every single second.
  • There are approximately 5 million Canadians still smoke.
  • The best way for us to combat this issue is together—from joining local cleanup groups, supporting national and international campaigns, or simply just ensuring you dispose of butt litter properly.
  • How much plastic waste do cigarette butts represent? -- With an average weight of 0.2g per cigarette butt, it amounts to 1.1 million tons. This represents about 0.3 percent of all the plastic produced worldwide annually (359 million tons).
  • Are cigarette filters biodegradable? -- Cellulose acetate biodegrades over several months to several years, depending on the surrounding conditions. Therefore, it cannot be characterized as biodegradable; however, it will not accumulate in the environment over time. Tobacco companies have been researching cigarette filters with higher degradability for many years, but no better alternative to cellulose acetate has yet been found. While research for filters with higher degradability continues, one should assume that the cigarette filter in its current form will remain an integral part of the product.
  • How many cigarette butts are improperly disposed of? -- There are many reports that try to approximate the incidence of cigarette butt litter in public, but there is very little conclusive measured data available today. Many litter surveys cite that between one-third and two-thirds of cigarette butts are littered. Recently, statistically significant field research was conducted in France that suggested that one out of three cigarettes was being littered in public.

https://thegreatoutdoorsfund.org/

https://www.unsmoke.ca/