Keeping a Chin Up While the Butts are Down

I need a reason to celebrate. No fear, here is one: June is Great Outdoors Month. Hop in a kayak, go camping, or tackle some rock climbing because, as President Obama says in his presidental proclamation about the event, natural areas "continue to raise the human spirit in those who experience them." And I don't know about you but my human spirit has been a little saggy as of late.

Today, before 9:00 a.m., I had two different unrepentant ciggarette litterers hang up the phone on me. Before I had a chance to explain why we take butts on the side of the road seriously, they preemptively cut off communication. I know that no one likes to be told that their habits are nasty and antisocial - not to mention illegal - but it is so discouraging that litterbugs are disinterested in learning why we care so much. One man hissed, "You guys have got to be kidding about cigarette butts. You guys get carried away with your little powers that be. Thanks." Click.

I'm not on a power trip and frankly, writing dozens of letters to litterbugs (158 so far this year) is not my idea of fun. I take the time to do it because littering is such a thoughtless action that can have a huge impact on the planet. Even something as little as a cigarette butt has major repurcussions down the line because about 4.5 trillion of them are tossed into the environment every year. What that means is our outdoors sees more than 840,000 tons of litter containing potent carcinogens like benzopyrene and formaldehyde; poisons like arsenic, lead, acetone, toluene, cadmium, and benzene; and hazardous chemicals like butane and ammonia. About one fifth of that will be washed into creeks, streams, rivers and the human water supply. (You can find out more in our cigarette litter brochure here.)

Once you learn all of this, it's hard not be get carried away because cigarette litter - and all litter is so easy to prevent. Sigh. Perhaps if we get enough people to go out and enjoy Great Outdoors Month, more will realize what an enormous problem litter can be.