Cigarette butts: how the no 1 most littered objects are choking our coasts

‘The cigarette butts themselves look like little fish’: cigarette filters are gathered by Israeli volunteers in a mass beach clean-up city of Netanya in October 2020. Photograph: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images

Some count long stretches of powdery white sand, others are fringed by dramatic cliffs. But no matter the beach or its location, there’s little escape from the blight that plagues many of them: cigarette butts.

Spain’s nearly 5,000 miles of coastline are no exception. “On beaches where smoking is allowed, unfortunately cigarette butts continue to rank as the most found waste product and the one with the most significant impact,” says Inés Sabanés, a Spanish lawmaker with the Más País–Equo coalition.