08-07-2025
‘No Butts Day': Hongkongers collect over 20,000 cigarette butts as part of global environmental campaign
Hongkongers collected 22,012 discarded cigarette butts on Saturday, as 36 volunteers joined the global 'No Butts Day' environmental campaign for the first time, according to charity Plastic Free Seas.
According to a Monday press release, the anti-plastic pollution NGO partnered with Yeungs – a plastic waste reduction enthusiast – to raise awareness about plastic cigarette filters and toxic pollution.
Participants were encouraged to pick locations around Hong Kong and collect cigarette butts, submitting the locations and numbers collected to the Plastic Free Seas website.
Participant Janice Baird told HKFP on Tuesday that she was shocked by her experience. 'I didn't think I'd find anything because [the road] looked really clean, and I was so surprised to find them everywhere, between cracks in the pavement, in the bushes, just everywhere,' she said.
'It was both a big learning experience, but also devastating,' she added.
Another participant, Natasha Chawla, said she collected over 600 cigarette butts around her Lohas Park neighbourhood with a friend.
Microplastic risk
In 2023, there were over 577,000 daily conventional cigarette smokers in Hong Kong, consuming an average of 12.1 cigarettes daily, according to the Census and Statistics Department.
'Even if only 15 per cent of the butts are improperly disposed [of] – and that's a low estimate – it would mean that over one million butts are ending up in our environment every day in Hong Kong,' said Dana Winograd, executive director of Plastic Free Seas, in the press release.
Winograd told HKFP that many participants were not aware that cigarette butts are made of plastic and how 'No Butts Day' served as an educational awareness campaign. 'My main focus is to raise awareness of the fact that these are plastic and they don't belong in the environment,' she said.
The 'No Butts Day' campaign originated in the Netherlands in 2019, and was initially launched to raise awareness of the environmental costs of cigarette filters.
On Saturday, thousands of volunteers across 25 countries collected 964,000 cigarette butts from the environment, Plastic Free Seas said.
According to a report from Stopping Tobacco Organizations and Products, almost all cigarettes contain filters made of plastic. The global industry watchdog adds that the non-biodegradable filters break down into microplastics, potentially leaching chemicals – including heavy metals – into the environment.
The Hong Kong government does not currently have any policies regarding plastic cigarette filters, though littering is publishable by a fixed penalty of HK$3,000.
Authorities have, however, taken several measures to reduce plastic waste including a limited ban on single-use plastics starting in 2024.
