Hubbub Cigarette Litter 2022: Polling Summary 3,049 18+ respondents with 1,595 cigarette smokers and 2,010 nationally representative. 13.05.22 – 18.05.22. Plastic/environment Smokers: •
Only 1 in four (28%) smokers are aware that cigarette butts contain plastic.
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14% say they regularly drop their cigarette butts because they believe they don’t impact the environment and that they will decompose.
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Over a third of smokers (34%) believe it takes less than a year for a cigarette butt to decompose but the truth is it takes around 10 years.
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36% mistakenly think they contain cotton wool.
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When told that cigarette butts actually contain plastic and can harm wildlife… o 45% of smokers said it's probably more impactful on the environment than they thought o 40% of smokers said it probably takes longer to biodegrade than they thought o 23% of smokers said they are now more concerned about how it might impact wildlife o 21% of smokers said they’d now be more likely to put their cigarette butts in a bin
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When participants were told that cigarette butts kill and injure wildlife, break down into microplastics, take years to biodegrade and carry a heavy load of toxic materials that can be harmful to nearby marine life and plants, 57% said they’d be more likely to look for an ashtray nearby, 50% say they are more likely to keeping hold of their cigarette butts for longer, 36% say they are more likely to switching to a reusable vape pen, 34% say they are more likely to quit smoking, 34% say they are more likely to carrying a portable ashtray.
Habits
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