FEATURE
KEEP WALES TIDY!
Wales celebrates National No Smoking Day with a portrait of Sir
David Attenborough made with cigarette butts, as they are found to
be the most common form of litter in the country.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Wales
Cymru commissioned Welsh artist Nathan
Wyburn to create a portrait of environmental
campaigner Sir David Attenborough made
entirely from cigarette butts collected on
Welsh beaches to mark National No Smoking
Day 2019.
Amidst a worldwide war on plastics, the aim of
this piece of art was to highlight the impact of
cigarette butts on the environment, and the fact
that they pollute our oceans and waterways
with plastic and toxins, according to ASH Wales
Cymru.
Together with Keep Wales Tidy, the tobacco
control campaign group unveiled the portrait on
Barry Island Beach on March 13.
Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the
world. Across the UK alone, an estimated 122
tonnes of smoking related litter items are dropped
every day.
Suzanne Cass, CEO of ASH Wales Cymru,
said: “This year we want to use No Smoking
Day as an opportunity to raise awareness of
the environmental impact of cigarette butts and
there is a very serious message behind Nathan
Wyburn’s portrait. Through the BBC series Blue
Planet, Sir David Attenborough has shown the
devasting impact plastic is having on our oceans.
Plastic filled cigarette butts are a part of that
problem and play a big part in turning the seas into
what Sir David Attenborough has described as a
‘toxic soup’. Protecting the environment is a major
concern especially amongst young people. Many
smokers do not know the damage cigarettes do
to the planet and we hope that by making people
more aware of the impact, it might give them an
extra incentive to kick this highly addictive habit.”
It’s unclear if UK television’s favourite environmental
campaigner Sir David Attenborough has seen his
latest portrait, but we reckon he’d be a fan of this
mission.
In 2018 cigarette butts were found on over 80
percent of streets in Wales, making it the most
common form of litter in the country.
ASH Wales Cymru says, “Contrary to popular
belief, cigarette butts are not biodegradable.”
A survey carried out by Keep Britain Tidy last
year found that less than half of smokers know
that cigarettes contain plastic. Meanwhile one
in ten smokers do not consider cigarette butts
to be litter and 10 percent think cigarettes are
biodegradable.
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They contain plastic and can stay in the
environment for up to 15 years. Cigarette filters
contain harmful chemical ingredients including
arsenic, lead and nicotine that pollute our
waterways and the toxins in tobacco residue
endanger animals that ingest them.
Just one cigarette butt left to soak in water for 96
hours will release enough toxins to kill half of the
salt or fresh water fish that are exposed to it.