Tossing Out a Cigarette Butt has Big Consequences

Do you polish off your joe and give it a quick flick out of your window? Don't you lie, either.

Because just this week I have seen THREE different cars driving in front of me flick the rest of their cigarette out of the window and onto the road. Now don't get it twisted, I have nothing against anyone who smokes cigarettes. Just not my cup of tea.

Now I DO have an issue if you're going to just throw your cigarettes around all willy-nilly and not care what happens afterwards.

Alas, I am only one man. I can't go around being the cigarette butt disposal police. But what I can do is tell you what happens AFTER you toss that stinky stick out into our wonderful, beautiful environment.

According to Truth Initiative, 4.5 TRILLION cigarettes are littered every year. Now personally, once a number gets over about 10 thousand I lose all brain function and can't comprehend exactly how much 4.5 trillion actually is. Math was never my strong suit in school, so let me try to break this down in a more tangible way.

Cigarettes are the most littered item on earth and make up almost 38% of all litter.

More of a dollars and cents person? Some cities spend upwards of 15 MILLION dollars a year just on cigarette cleanup.

If you love the environment like I do, you'd be disappointed to learn that cigarette butts are NOT biodegradable. Shocker.

Cigarettes can take years to disintegrate. Often times they don't even get to disintegrate because an animal or fish consumed it. And yes, they are toxic.

So before you get rid of the end of that cigarette out of your window, think about all of the consequences that one piece of trash will create. Better yet, think about the POSITIVE impact you can have on our environment by not tossing your butt out at all!

Be cool. Don't litter.