Save Our Beach

"Hold Onto Your Butt" started in 2001 due to the lit cigarette butt that was tossed out of a car in San Diego and resulted in many homes being destroyed.

You can call and report someone flicking a lit cigarette out of a car at

877-211-BUTT
and giving us the date, time, street, city, license #, make/model, driver or passenger, male or female and the registered owner of the vehicle will receive a nice letter in the mail from the CHP letting them know that next time they'll receive a $500 ticket for littering and possible cause of a wildfire.

I understand that your car is one of the only places you can still smoke, but you don't need to drop you toxic cigarette butt onto the street that does not biodegrade for 15 years and could start a really bad fire, and if no fire is started the cigarette butt will still end up in our ocean and a cigarette butt is toxic.

Cigarette butts are the number one trash item found on the beach, so please "Hold Onto Your Butt".

DID YOU KNOW?

Cigarette butts are the most littered item in The United States and the world.
Over two billion cigarette butts get tossed everyday. That's an average of two cigarette butts daily from each of earth's 1.2 billion smokers.
It is estimated that Americans toss more than 175 million pounds of cigarette butts out every year. These butts are frequently cast onto the sidewalk and streets and then pushed into storm drains that flow to streams, rivers, bays, lagoons and ultimately the ocean.
At beach cleanups, cigarette butts are the most common form of trash found (typically accounting for one in every five items collected).
The cigarette filter was designed to trap the toxic chemicals in the cigarette smoke from entering the smoker's body. When submerged in water, the toxic chemicals trapped in the filter leak out into aquatic ecosystems, threatening the quality of the water and many forms of aquatic life.
Cigarette butts may seem small, but with an estimated 4.5 trillion butts (worldwide) littered every year, the toxic chemicals add up!
Over 99% of cigarettes are now smoked outside.
18% of all litter dropped to the ground is washed into streams, rivers, lakes and the ocean by storm water runoff. Cigarette butts, are little and lightweight and are the first to get carried away into our waterways.
Studies indicate that since we have enacted indoor smoking bans, more cigarette butts are being tossed directly into the environment. Unfortunately, this means that ecosystems have a higher chance of being affected by cigarette butts. Biologists have found butts in the stomachs of young birds, sea turtles and other marine creatures.
Cigarette butts can cause other environmental problems, such as fires. For example, a cigarette butt was the possible cause of an 11,000 acre fire in San Diego in January 2001.
Many smokers incorrectly believe that cigarette filters are made of biodegradable cotton. In fact, cigarette filters are made of plastic cellulose acetate, and can take 15 years to decompose.

Thank You For Helping Us!
Kim Masoner
Founder
Save Our Beach

Supporter