World’s largest cigarette cleanup coming to Ontario communities this month

The world’s largest cigarette cleanup campaign is coming to Oshawa this month, part of a nationwide campaign to collect one million cigarette butts in April and another 500,000 in September.

A Greener Future and UNSMOKE Canada will be hosting their sixth annual Butt Blitz in April, with a stop in Oshawa next Thursday at Oshawa Hospital from 10 a.m. to noon.

Cigarette butts harm wildlife, pollute waterways, and release microplastics and are the most littered item in the world, making up one in five pieces of litter found during Butt Blitz clean-ups since the first campaign in 2015. To date, nearly five million pounds of litter, including more than five million cigarette butts, have been removed and sent to environmental partner TerraCycle Canada for recycling.

Internationally, UNSMOKE has properly disposed of more than 10 million discarded cigarette butts since 2020 through 101 community projects staffed by thousands of volunteers nationwide.

The campaign, which is fully funded by cigarette manufacturer Rothmans, Benson and Hedges Inc., will be in Brantford Saturday, Ottawa Tuesday and in Oshawa and Montreal next Thursday.

The campaign returns to Oshawa April 26 for a clean-up at Lakeview Beach from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and at Oshawa Tech University (10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.) on April 29.

More than 300,000 butts were collected at a blitz in Oshawa last year, one of the most successful clean-ups in the campaign’s history.

Since its inception in 2015, the Butt Blitz has mobilized volunteers nationwide to address cigarette litter, which contain harmful substances such as plastic, arsenic, and lead, which can leach into soil and water, contaminating ecosystems and posing risks to wildlife and human health.

As well, small animals, birds, and marine life often mistake cigarette butts for food, leading to poisoning and even death.

Discarded butts also pose a fire hazard and have ignited wildfires and urban fires, especially in dry conditions, posing significant risks to communities and natural habitats.

Volunteers are wanted and can join public events scheduled throughout April and September or reach out to help organize an event in their community. Visit https://www.agreenerfuture.ca/the-butt-blitz for more information.