Tybee’s
Big Butt Problem
By Tim Arnold and Kathryn Propst
Tybee Clean Beach Volunteers and Fight Dirty Tybee
Tybee has a big butt problem. Yeah, we know what you’re thinking, but
we’re talking cigarette butts and lots of them. Why should you care and
what can you do about it?
The Problem, Part 1—Butts are plastic and toxic
Butts are the #1 littered item on the planet. Modern cigarette filters are
made of plastic fibers. The plastic doesn’t biodegrade; it just breaks up
into smaller and smaller bits that never go away. And there’s a long list
of chemicals that leach out, especially in water. Just one butt in a liter of
water is enough to kill a small fish.
The Problem, Part 2—Habits are hard to break
Everybody knows it’s hard to quit smoking and it’s also hard to break the
littering habits that go along with it. Flicking that butt out of the window or
onto the ground and grinding it down with a shoe seems so…natural. NOT.
The Solution, Part 1—Awareness
“I didn’t know they were plastic.” We hear this a lot, especially when we
say that we send butts to TerraCycle for recycling. That’s right—a company
in New Jersey separates out the paper and tobacco and processes the
filter fibers into pellets that are made into other plastic things like pots and
benches. We’ve sent 110,000 butts collected from the beach to TerraCycle.
Plus, we’ve got about 84,000 more—some ready to get shipped off, and
some on display, like the 30,000 at the Tybee Island Marine Science Center.
The Solution, Part 2—Responsibility
This is everybody’s problem so it’s everybody’s responsibility to solve. If
you smoke cigarettes, don’t litter your butts. Get an ashtray (use a mint
tin or a can or a shell), field strip ‘em and put them in your pocket, or
walk ‘em to a trashcan. Break the litter habit. If you’re a business owner,
provide ashtrays or receptacles for your patrons and clean up around
your business. If you see someone smoking, ask them nicely to not toss
the butt or give them your ashtray. Anyone can help remove butts and
other litter from the beach by joining the Tybee Clean Beach Volunteers
(tybeecleanbeach.com). It’s a great group and a lot of FUN!
The sand is a tempting ashtray! But butts
contribute to plastic pollution and leach
toxic chemicals into the water.
Photo by Tim Arnold
This “orb” of about 30,000 butts collected
from the beach is on display at the Tybee
Island Marine Science Center.
Photo by Tim Arnold
Butts fresh off the beach, collected in
about 1 hour in May 2018.
Photo by Tim Arnold
18 TYBEE BEACHCOMBER | JULY 2018
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