These days, it seems like anything you can buy comes in two versions: regular and “green.” With so many products being made using environmentally friendly items, being planet-conscious is as easy as checking the label at the store. However, that’s not the case for ALL products.

As the state of Vermont celebrated Green Up Day (a statewide effort to remove litter and clean up outdoors), thousands upon thousands of pounds of waste were picked up and properly disposed of.  Volunteers disposed of anything they could get their hands on, with the exception of one item: cigarette butts. The ground was littered with so many that removing them all would have been an impossible task. Being that they are so small, so many and so hard to pick up in any mass manner, volunteers in Vermont had to overlook the butts and concentrate on larger pieces of litter.

According to the Cigarette Litter Prevention Program – a program funded by Philip Morris – about 95% of cigarette butts thrown on the ground are composed of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic that does not easily biodegrade. Oddly enough, even though Philip Morris funds this program (a PR effort to save face) and concurs that the materials they make butts out of are harmful, they have yet to cease using such materials.

They may be small, but they do add up. The tobacco industry recognizes and admits that the materials they use are not environmentally friendly but they keep making the same, non-biodegradable product anyway.