Tennessee Aquarium Introduces Cigarette Butts Recycling Initiative Thursday, May 20, 2021 - by Thom Benson - photo by Tennessee Aquarium - photo by Tennessee Aquarium
Pick a city street any street and take a look around. Chances are you’ll see a smattering of cigarette butts dotting the ground like the tracks of an animal with a serious overpopulation problem.
Because of their ubiquity, these white and orange filters can seem to almost fade into the background, but many eventually find their way from streets, gutters and parking lots into nearby streams and rivers. Within months, they begin to break down, polluting the surrounding water with tiny plastic fibers and a devil’s cocktail of chemical compounds.