BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 15, 2022
On a single day in May 2022, a Belfast group and student volunteers collected more than 120,000 discarded cigarette butts from city streets in an effort to reduce toxic litter. The Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition launched its Butts Be Gone campaign in 2019 to combat cigarette butt littering in Belfast. They’ve spent the past three years picking up cigarette butts off the streets and installing disposal containers. The group has also recycled an estimated 15,418 butts since launching the initiative. Studies show cigarette butts are the most common type of marine litter. Their toxins and microplastics pose ecological risks to fish, marine bacterium, water fleas and other marine life.