This was a fascinating read. I'm surprised tobacco is the number 1 litter. I rarely see people smoking anymore where I live, so I would assume it would not be a top contributor to litter. Is smoking still very prevalent in San Fransisco?
No, but for some reason people think throwing cigarette butts on the ground and out of car windows isn't littering.
(Also I live in NYC these days, but I used to live in SF).
I never chuck my butts on the ground, if there isn't a rubbish bin nearby, I'll either put the butt back in my packet, or just put it in my pocket. When I see friends tossing their butts I always have a go at them for littering, most just don't even realise what they're doing is wrong.
I suspect (as an exsmoker) that it's more about the availability of cigarette receptacles. most smokers I know are willing to dispose of butts when there's a convenient place to put them, but are not willing to carry them around until they find a suitable place. used cigarettes make your clothes smell a lot worse that merely smoking outside.
A study commissioned by SF Public Works in 2009 determined that the direct costs for cigarette related litter in San Francisco could be remediated with a 22 cent per pack tax. The actual tax in San Francisco is 85 cents per pack known as the "Cigarette Litter Abatement Fee". The 2009 study claimed around 30 million packs/year are sold in San Francisco which would be roughly 25 million dollars a year in taxes collected for this purpose with an estimated cleanup cost of only 7-8 million. So not only are cigarette smokers already paying for the cleanup they are paying nearly four times the actual cleanup cost for their litter.
The 2009 study: https://sfpublicworks.org/sites/default/files/tobacco_litter...
The tax: https://sftreasurer.org/cigarette
You may say "yuck". But trust me, good tobacco the second time around is better than the stuff in those nasty папироса.
I agree however, that I'd rather just use re-usable glass or metal cup (with a handle or suitable insulated wrappping) and avoid the potential for hot liquids leaching things out of plastic!
Cigarette butts without the filter are easily degraded organic (carbon) compounds. You can compost them and will get perfectly acceptable potting soil.
Same story for the various additives. As a rule, anything that has a physiological effect and isn't a heavy metal is biodegradable.
However, a used cigarette butt will additionally contain adhesives and any flavorings as well as some leftover compounds deposited by the smoke. The wikipedia article goes into higher detail on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette_filter
Cellulose acetate is only sort-of biodegradable like Cellulose. Here is a study looking at the topic: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10924-010-0258-...
> Cellulose is readily biodegraded by organisms that utilize cellulase enzymes, but due to the additional acetyl groups cellulose acetate requires the presence of esterases for the first step in biodegradation. Once partial deacetylation has been accomplished either by enzymes, or by partial chemical hydrolysis, the polymer’s cellulose backbone is readily biodegraded.
I.e. if you throw butts in an ordinary compost pile, they might not get anywhere for a while.
I blame the lack of a real winter. In the northeast people quit smoking when it was banned indoors, because they didn't want to smoke in the freezing cold snow, whereas in SF people just go outside all year around.