The Economic and Environmental Impact of Cigarette Litter

The overall littering rate for cigarette butts is 65%. It is estimated that 1.69 BILLION pounds of butts wind up as toxic trash each year, creating an enormous environmental, health, and economic burden.

Economically, cigarette butt litter:

• • Requires additional sidewalk and street sweeping, greenway and park maintenance, storm drain cleaning, and increased maintenance of storm water filters.

• • Makes business owners bear the expense of cigarette butt and cigar tip litter cleanup around entrances, exits, sidewalks, planters, grounds, and parking lots.

• • Can result in a decline in a city’s foot traffic, tourism, business development, and housing. In fact, the presence of litter in a community decreases property values by a little over 7%. Focusing on small improvements, like reducing cigarette butt litter, creates safer and more economically vibrant communities.

• • Takes a toll on recreation areas and public spaces. Tobacco litter represents nearly 34.4% of all litter in outdoor recreation areas such as picnic areas, hiking trails, parks, etc. decreasing the appeal of these natural areas.

• • Makes up nearly 38% of all litter collected. Worldwide, 4.5 Trillion cigarettes are littered each year. Cities spend between $3-18 million on cigarette litter.

• • Discarded cigarette butts can ignite destructive and deadly fires. More than 900 people in the United States die each year in fires started by cigarettes, and about 2,500 are injured. Nationally, annual human and property costs of fires caused by careless smoking total about $6 billion.

• • Taxpayers, local authorities, and organizations such as certain environmental groups and businesses, currently bear the costs of cigarette litter clean up. It is costly in the amount of money spent and the needed manpower to do so.

• • There is also the cost of “lost revenue.” Tourists will not spend their vacation dollars on areas where litter is prevalent or pervasive. This affects natural areas as well as urban areas.

• • 75% of smokers report regularly disposing of cigarette butts out of the car. This litter ends up along our roadsides–streets, highways, byways, and sidewalks–in urban and rural areas. Accumulated cigarette litter is reported to comprise an estimated 25–50 percent of all collected litter items from roads and streets and requires constant costly maintenance to clear.

 

• • Environmentally, cigarette butt litter:

 

• • They are the most littered item in the U.S. and the world. 5.6 trillion cigarettes are sold globally every year; 360 billion are sold annually in the United States– at least one-third of those – 120 billion – are discarded into the environment.

• • Smoking-related debris is 1/3 or more of all debris items found on U.S. beaches and in rivers and streams.

• • There is an estimated 1.69 Billion pounds of cigarette litter each year. Traditional filters are non-biodegradable and is composed of 95% cellulose acetate–a toxic plastic–and while ultraviolet rays from the sun will eventually break them into smaller pieces–the toxic material never dissipates or disappears and continues to harm the environment for many years afterward.

• • Discarded cigarette butts from motorists end up in the environments alongside roadways; they can be the cause of fires that destroy habitats and have a significant impact on the affected ecosystems.

• • 32% of litter at storm drains is tobacco products.

• • 80% of butts on the ground find their way into our water systems and detract from the quality of our drinking water.

• • Cigarette butts have been found in the stomachs of fish, whales, birds, and other marine animals. Cigarette filters leach hazardous, toxic chemicals–contaminating and damaging the environment–and are a biohazard to wildlife.

• • Animals, marine life, and toddlers who ingest dropped cigarette butts have become ill or died from them.

 

 

An offering statement pursuant to Regulation A relating to shares of our no par value common stock (the “Share” our our “Common Stock”) has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission” or “SEC:) and was qualified by the SEC on March 22nd, 2018 (the “Offering Statement”). Information contained in this Offering Statement is subject to amendment. The Offering shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor may there be any sales of our Common Stock in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful before registration or qualification under the laws of any such state.Currently our Common Stock is only registered or qualified for sale in the State of Colorado. A copy of the preliminary offering circular filed with the SEC is available here.

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