Successful hunt for cigarette butts in the streets of Toulouse
No less than 27,800 cigarette butts were collected this Sunday, September 18, in one hour, in Toulouse, on the occasion of World clean up day.
The fifty or so volunteers present, this Sunday morning, at Place Wilson in Toulouse, for the second day of the World clean up day have not been tired. In one hour, they picked up a trifle of 27,800 cigarette butts while the sector had been cleaned the day before by citizens committed to the environmental cause and the same morning by the city’s maintenance services.
“Butts are a scourge! “, trumpets to whoever wants to hear it Catherine Sanchez, Occitanie ambassador of the World clean up day France, organizer of the event with the services of Toulouse Métropole. “A single cigarette butt pollutes 500 liters of water. It is the leading cause of pollution in the Mediterranean ahead of industrial discharges”.
When we know that 8 million cigarette butts are thrown on the ground, every minute in the world, and that it takes between 5 to 12 years for a cigarette butt to transform into microplastics, which are always pollutants, the battle is far from won. . Yet, some strive tirelessly to preserve the environment. “I come from Cazères with my son and within the Run eco team association, we pick up waste in nature every day by running”, explains Didier Tejedor. Other associations such as Tean river clean and Projet rescue ocean joined in this day of action.
The double interest of this operation is that the cigarette butts collected will now be recycled and incinerated to produce electricity.