Cigarette butts are the most commonly collected item during beach cleanups by Surfrider Foundation and its chapters throughout the nation.
Surfrider’s 2025 Beach Cleanup Report — its seventh annual — shows nearly 200,000 cigarette butts were collected last year alone, making them the most commonly collected item during beach cleanups.
An estimated 4.5 trillion butts are littered into environment annually around the globe.
Cigarette butts are made of plastic, which means they cannot biodegrade and will only break down into smaller and smaller pieces to become increasingly harder to remove.
They also leach thousands of toxic chemicals into the water, harming marine ecosystems through every level of the food chain.
While research by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates fewer adults in the nation are smoking, cigarette butts continue to litter beaches and waterways throughout the United States.
Surfrider’s Hold on to Your Butt program addresses this pervasive form of pollution in three ways:
- Spreading awareness of the harms of smoking litter.
- Removing butts from beaches.
- Installing portable ashtrays to reduce litter.
Ultimately, taking action through legislative changes is the best way to stop smoking waste pollution.
As an example, Santa Cruz County in California passed in 2025 a filtered cigarette sales ban inspired by the Hold on to Your Butt campaign. Not only will it reduce butts on beaches in the state, the decision will lower agency cleanup costs for taxpayers and promote a healthier environment.
Are you noticing an abundance of smoking-related waste on your local beach and want to take action? Join Surfrider to tackle the top-ranking source of beach trash together.
Visit the Surfrider Foundation website to learn more.
