Careless smokers

When smokers toss cigarette butts onto the street or onto the open landscape, they don't realise how much damage they are inflicting on the environment. I have noticed smokers tossing cigarette butts onto the road while driving.

Smokers may not see cigarette butts as a major problem because of their small size. Others consider putting cigarettes out on the ground as a safer method of disposal. Besides being a danger to the local environment, cigarette butts are certainly an eyesore.

An environmental campaign to inform and educate smokers about the need for the better disposal of cigarette butts would certainly go a long way in both keeping the streets tidy and protecting the environment. Smokers should be encouraged to dispose of their cigarette ends responsibly.

Alternatively, smokers who toss their cigarette butts on to the streets should be fined.

 — The reader is a senior customer service executive in Dubai.

Toxic

• According to the US-based Cigarette Litter Organisation, about 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are thrown away every year in the entire world.
• Although small, they contain a number of harmful chemicals. Not only can the flicked cigarette butts start a fire, but when in contact with water, the toxic chemicals from the cigarette butt can be released into the environment.
• For cigarette butts to break down, it takes about one to two months in aerobic conditions, six to nine months in anaerobic conditions, and 36 months or longer in seawater.

— Noor Al Khatib/Social Media Editor