The world has revel picking up on credit card straw recently when it make out to ocean waste , despite them accounting for just0.02 percentof ocean waste . But there are bigger fish to electrocute .
One of those looks like cigarette nates , agree to a write up byNBC News . They report it was the number one human - caused contamination in the humankind ’s oceans , and it has managed to nullify regulation so far .
The independent issue appear to from fag filters , which Thomas Novotny , professor of public wellness at San Diego State University , told NBC News had “ no wellness welfare ” . He contribute that it “ seems like a no - brainer to me that we ca n’t proceed to leave this . ”
The filters of the 5.6 trillion cigarette ( two - third of which are knock down irresponsibly ) made around the world each year are composed of cellulose acetate , which can take more than a decade to decompose . Since 1986 cigarette butts have been the most collected token of ocean beaches , with about 60 million rule in 32 years .
Filters were invent in the mid-1900s to relieve health business concern from cigarette , but have now become a major problem . A 2011 field by Professor Novotny find that getting smokers to stop flicking the end of their coffin nail was difficult , with anti - litter campaign and permanent ashtrays being unsuccessful .
A campaign called theCigarette Butt Pollution Projectis now hoping to change mental attitude towards cigarette filters . “ Cigarette butt wasteland has polluted our beach , park , and communities long enough – it ’s time to take action at law ! ” they wrote on their site .
Some steps have already been take to tackle the trouble around the humankind . In the US , effort have been made to croak legislation to banish filter , or raising cigarette pack monetary value to insure clean - up funds .
And to begin with this calendar month , we report on a theme park in France that hadtrained some of its rooksto cull up bedding material and coffin nail butts , with the finish being to show that “ nature itself can learn us to take care of the surroundings . ”
So while the war on charge card straws is undoubtedly respectable tidings – present just how easy it is to make a belittled modification to your daily lifespan – there is still much further to go to clean up our sea . Cracking down on cigarette butts would be a good step .