Reducing Cigarette Littering

Imagine it’s a beautiful Saturday morning and you’re walking in a local park. You stop to sit on a bench near a creek and do some reading, but as you approach, you’re disappointed to find the ground littered with cigarette butts. They’re clinging to the dewy grass, ground into the dirt, and bobbing at the water’s edge, caught up in a soup of sticks and leaves. Your serene moment in nature comes to an abrupt end. You can’t help but think about the microplastics and toxic chemicals leaching from those butts, silently polluting the natural space around you.

A monumental 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered every year, making them the most littered item on the planet.^1,2 Persistent and incredibly toxic, cigarette butts account for an estimated 25% to 40% of all global litter and consistently make up a large portion of all items collected in international coastal and urban cleanups.² For sustainability leaders, urban planners, and public health officials, reducing cigarette littering is a common but largely elusive goal. While many cities focus on bans and fines to curtail cigarette litter, research shows that these measures alone are generally ineffective.³
Legal consequences do little to move the needle when smokers are driven by habit and short-term convenience over proper disposal. Shame-based messaging—another common approach—can encourage defensive littering behavior, especially when cigarette littering is perceived as socially normalized and environmentally inconsequential. Fortunately, research shows that interventions rooted in behavioral science can be incredibly effective in reshaping smoker behavior.⁴ Using concepts like nudging, incentives, framing, gamification, and social proof, we can encourage smokers to dispose of their butts properly, for a cleaner, safer, and more beautiful world.