Coinciding with Earth Day, about a dozen Youth Action Alliance (YAA) volunteers participated in the cigarette butt pickup at Fort Frances High School yesterday.
YAA spokesperson Tiffany Whalen said the exercise was done to raise awareness about cigarettes and waste.
Some facts about cigarette butts include:
•it takes 12 years for cigarette butts to break down in the environment;
•it’s estimated trillions of cigarettes are littered every day on a global scale;
•each year, Canadian smokers toss out 400 million cigarette butts;
•cigarette butts have been found in the stomachs of fish, whales, birds, and other marine animals, which leads to ingestion of hazardous chemicals and digestive blockages; and
•the Northwestern Health Unit gives out pocket ashtrays—small film canisters you can put your cigarettes in, shake, and extinguish without discarding on the ground (just empty them in the trash can when it’s full).
Whalen also said the group will take the butts collected and put them in a jar to display at the high school to raise awareness amongst the student body.
This might tie into a contest to guess how many butts are in the jar.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
