No more digs at cigs, as pocket ashtrays change the stigma surrounding smokers

Amidst the cigarette litter crisis, Yvette Bishop says: “Let’s work together to make our planet cleaner – even if you are a smoker.” 

Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world, and across the UK it is estimated that 122 tonnes of smoking-related litter are dropped every day by smokers.

In 2018 alone, cigarette butts were found on 80.3% of streets in Wales and as smoking simmers in city centres, the need for sustainable and healthy recycling of cigarette litter is increasing day by day.

Since the smoking ban in 2007, its prevalence among the public has fallen by 6%. Regardless of this decline, according to cigarette waste business, My Ashtray, there will always be dedicated smokers who will never stop smoking or people who will smoke for a time. Therefore, there will always be litter caused by smoking. 

In discussing the topic with the founder of My Ashtray, Yvette Bishop said: “Successive governments have been focused correctly on educating people so they either stop smoking or never start.” But what about the litter caused by those who do smoke?

“Butts are tossed in garden pots, stubbed out in sewage drains, or chucked beside mounds of bagged litter outside buildings.” says Yvette, “The smokers who dispose of this waste are almost demonised and deemed antisocial, for disregarding waste in an unhealthy way, and further making our streets look unclean.”

My Ashtray is a company that has issued small pocket ashtrays that allow you to dispose of your fags fuss-free, in an eco-friendly manner, at a later date. My Ashtray is providing means of enabling a healthy planet and ensuring that smokers can also be a part of the movement.

According to Friends of the Earth Cymru “Plastic filters can take up to 12 years to degrade and cigarette butts leak toxins that contaminate water and harm marine life and the environment.”