Cigarette butts are made of plastic, which means they do not biodegrade. So, when you drop one on the ground, it is no different to littering any other item.
Yet, despite only 12% of the population being regular smokers, we know that cigarette butts are in fact the country's most littered item. The impact this has on our environment is huge. That is why, over the past few years we have been working hard to tackle the blight of cigarette litter.
Our national behaviour change campaign
You wouldn’t drop a plastic bottle on the ground, so why would you drop a cigarette butt?
Cigarette butts are made out of plastic and yet many smokers simply don’t see cigarette butts as litter. In fact, an astonishing four out of five cigarettes smoked outdoors are disposed of incorrectly.
If you smoke, bin your butts. Or the duck will be watching…
Drains are not ashtrays
Some people also think that putting a cigarette butt down a drain is the right way to get rid of it, but in fact this is still littering.
Research shows that up to 5,000 cigarette butts can end up in a single drain every year in Britain. From there, they can go directly into our waterways and eventually the sea, causing harm to marine life.
To tackle this, we designed a series of interventions to make people to think twice before using drains as bins. These interventions led to a 57% reduction in cigarette littering around drains.
FAQs
As part of our national trial to help reduce cigarette butt litter across the country, Keep Britain Tidy is distributing Butt Boxes - convenient, smell-proof portable ashtrays, made from 100% recycled materials and fully recyclable. The Butt Box is a simple solution that means you can stub out your butt and keep it with you until you find a bin.
By using a Butt Box regularly, people who smoke help reduce cigarette litter and protect the environment.
Cigarette butts are rubbish. So if you smoke, make sure that you stub out your cigarette and put it in a general waste bin. If you are not near a bin, then please take it with you until you find one.
Our national behaviour change campaign is part of a programme of work to tackle the UK's largest source of litter:, cigarette butts. Grounded in research and supported by practical interventions, the campaign is designed to shift behaviour and reduce cigarette litter.
At the end of 2024, after two years of national activity, we successfully have reduced cigarette litter across the country by 17%.
We estimate that through reach and targeting, our behaviour change campaign has been seen by 99.5% of smokers and our interventions have substantially reduced cigarette littering behaviour. Alongside this, our research continues to identify cigarette litter hotspots that need the most attention, and tracks how smokers' attitudes towards littering are changing over time.
Tackling cigarette litter has wider benefits too.
We know that litter attracts litter – and our research shows that 39% of Butt Box users report their littering of other items has decreased since using it.
The average UK smoker is smoking 10.6 cigarettes per day - even if just one is littered, that amounts to over 6 million cigarette butts every day across the UK.
Likely it's far more, because it is estimated that four out of five cigarettes smoked outdoors are improperly disposed of, which makes cigarette butts the UK’s most prevalent, and often overlooked, form of litter.
Cigarette butts cause devastating environmental damage. They are made from plastic and do not biodegrade, meaning a single butt can persist in the environment for many years, releasing toxic chemicals such as arsenic, lead, formaldehyde and nicotine into soil and watercourses.
These chemicals affect ecosystems at every level, from microorganisms through to plants, animals and aquatic life.
Campaigning based on research
All Keep Britain Tidy's campaigns are based on research. You can find out more about smoking-related litter by reading about our cigarette litter survey and how our year-round programme is reducing littered cigarette butts.