The improper disposal of cigarette butts is a major environmental and litter problem.  I have followed the research with a keen focus for the past decade.  You'll find an interesting report on cigarette litter on this website.

Today cigarette butts are identified as one of the largest environmental hazards we face on the planet.  From Texas to Dubai, Italy to Indonesia, governments are being warned of this major unchecked pollution.  The numbers are truly staggering.  The cleanup costs to cities and towns: enormous.  Once you start looking for discarded cigarette butts you'll be amazed to notice how many there really are.  It's pretty disgusting.

I believe in KippiPaks, a product we feature on this site.  “Kippi” is a personal, extinguishing ashtray the size and shape of a business card is actually a pouch for lit butts and chewing gum.  It’s reusable, made mostly of paper – no plastic involved – and is the genius idea of Toronto inventor Bruce Winnacott, now in his 80s.  The KippiPak puts out a butt in just over five seconds.  Fold over the top and the pouch is small and odorless, designed for you to carry with you to the nearest garbage can, empty and reuse.  (Or collect for TerraCycle, also featured on this website.)

In November 2009, on behalf of KippiPaks, Alex and I attended the Solid Waste Management conference in West Virginia where Keep America Beautiful released its comprehensive litter audit.  Cigarette butts were, by far, the most worrisome aspect of litter proliferation.  We're talking 32 billion non-biodegradable, poisonous cigarette butts a year being discarded in America alone.  In West Virginia, where KippiPaks are distributed at major events, cigarette litter has been reduced by more than 80%.  Smokers receive a KippiPak enthusiastically.  They want to keep it.  Until we can stop smokers from flicking their butts everywhere, building KippiPaks into cigarette packages makes a lot of sense.  When I wrote to the CEO of Rothman's with this idea and some Kippi samples, I didn't even receive the courtesy of a response.  But that story is for another post.

 

The other day at my bank someone left a half-fill cup of coffee in a takeout cup on the ledge outside.  A few days ago at the supermarket, I was two freshly spewed pieces of chewing gum coagulating on the pavement.  It's rare to see it so fresh.  Usually it has mutated into a black tar circle that never goes away. Or it winds up on your shoe.  

Not a day goes by that I don't notice litter.  So I started this website and a program to teach people not to litter.  My goal for litterpreventionprogram.com is for it to be the "go to" site for information on littering around the world.  Litter problems and solutions, contests, innovations, campaigns, crackdowns, videos, photos, the continued tracking of this worldwide conundrum, the site is a ready-made resource for students, teachers, researchers and the public as well as a diary of this wasteful, trash-filled era.. 

The problem of littering has confounded human beings since the dawn of packaged goods.
How fortunate was I to stumble on a method that actually changes littering behaviors and attitudes!  It stands to reason that music and engagement are involved, as these elements are known to be effective motivators.  

Research shows that people who litter will only walk twelve steps with stuff in their hand before they litter it.  That's not only lazy, it's crazy! It's sad but true that in this age of over-packaging, some people seem addicted to throwing waste out the car window and leaving refuse behind. 

The Litter Prevention Program replaces bad habits with good habits and make people proud to be litter captains in their home, school, community and workplace.  Ahhhh - to feel good again.  Studies say that people who litter feel bad, that is, litterers have low self-esteem, which manifests itself in this particular anti-social behavior.  It's hard to believe, but they will feel better when they give up littering.

Hi there.  I never thought I'd be in the litter prevention business.  But wow!  What a market!  Littering is so prevalent you could say it's a growth industry, regrettably.  An entirely human made and driven problem, littering can also be solved by humans.  And so easily.  How easy is it to not throw something on the ground or out a car window?  And whatever gave people the idea that littering is okay or even tolerable?  One must never litter: That's the core message of the Litter Prevention Program.  We teach people what to do with their stuff so that it never lands on the ground in the first place.  Think of the money saved if nobody littered.  No litter - no clean up, a job that costs cities like Toronto tens of millions of dollars a year.  If litter found its way to the right container for recycling, disposal or organic composting every time, imagine the beauty of an absolutely unspoiled natural environment free of littered products.  The natural world deserves our support.  Litter can kill animals, birds and marine life.  It looks awful.  Just as flowers and trees represent beautification, litter represents "uglification" wherever it lands.  People who litter probably never think about it.  The job of the Litter Prevention Program is to make sure that they do!  Littering is a bad habit that's easy to break.