The problem with all that ocean trash is what are we going to do with it? Take for instance cigarette butts alone. One of the most littered items on the beach and a definite marine killer, in my neighborhood, I could easily go outside and at least in my area, just on the street, I could probably pick up 1000 cigarette butts within 60 minutes.
Taylor Lane and Benjamin Judkins have a solution for reusing 10,000 cigarette butts and making into surfboards. In fact they launched an Indiegogo campaign to do a documentary about the boards. They raised over $21,000 and met their fundraising goals.
Taylor Lane’s Cigarette Surfboard from Juddy Productions on Vimeo.
The cigarette surfboard is made with 10,000 cigarette butts. That hopefully is 10,000 less cigarette butts laying around in our oceans and waterways, killing animals.
I just Got To Eco You: www.cigarettelitter.org
- 230,000 cigarette butts were collected from California beaches during the 2000 Coastal Cleanup Day in 1 day.
- Cigarette butts are the number one trash item found in cleanups.
- According to the Ocean Conservancy, cigarette butt litter accounts for one in every five items collected during cleanups, making it the most prevalent form of litter on earth.
- There are over 176,000,000 pounds of discarded cigarette butts in the United States each year.
- Over 4.5 trillion cigarettes are littered worldwide each year. They are the most littered item in the world
- 80% of cigarette butts make it into waterways.
- Cigarettes contain over 165 chemicals
- 1,863,838 Cigarette Butts picked up in the 2017 International Coastal Cleanup
Kudos to these surfers who created a cool surfboard that rides well and does the environment good. I truly hope the day comes where there are hoards of people picking up cigarette butts to help make these boards.. can you imagine walking down a street without seeing one cigarette butt? It would be a miracle!
What would really be awesome if awareness was brought to all those litterers about the effects of smoking both cigarettes and pot on the environment.
Resources
- Cigarette Litter.org
- Cigarette Butt Pollution Project (See the “Research” and “Butt FAQ” tabs)
- No-Smoking Policies and Their Outcomes on U.S. Beaches
- QuitDay.org
- Surfrider Foundation’s Cigarette Litter Campaign
- Beachapedia
- Still Blowing Smoke
Amazing! Thanks for raising awareness around this issue.
Nice surfing too!