Since I was little, I’ve been visiting my grandparents’ cabin in Brigus Junction each summer.

As a child, it was a magical place for me.

The grass was, quite literally, greener than in town, the trees were bigger, and there was more wildlife to observe.

The best part, though, was the streams and ponds around the cabin.

As children, my friends and I would swim in the ponds while our grandparents sat on the dock, and, sharing donut-shaped floaties, my friends and I would jump off of the dock and into the freezing pond, grab rocks from the bottom, and point out dragonflies on the lilypads.

On our walk back to the cabin, my brother and I would wait around streams to see if we could catch a frog, and although we never did, it was all in good fun.

Different perspective

This summer I got the chance to go back for the first time in a while, and my brother and I packed our swimsuits and flip-flops, ready to find the woods and ponds the same as they were when we were younger.

Possibly because I’m older now, or, possibly because it had been so long since I’d stopped to take in my surroundings while there, when I visited this time, I noticed how much the environment was littered with cigarette butts and glass from beer bottles.

I was upset at the change in scenery. How could something I loved so much have turned into this?

I began to notice it more often when I got home, too, in the squashed cigarette butts at the park and outside of the grocery store.

This was a huge wake-up call to me, as I realized for the first time how much litter affects the places we love.

“It can be difficult to see the damage, which is part of why people often underestimate the severity of the problem.”

A study conducted in 2017 by the Multi-Materials Stewardship Board showed that plastic and cigarette butts make up the majority of the province’s litter, with cigarette butts making up 88 per cent of the provincial highway’s litter.

Karen Hickman, executive director of Clean St. John’s, told Saltwire in 2021, “People always talk about coffee cups, chip bags and things like that, but it’s cigarette butts that are the biggest problem.”

When I read that, I wondered why.

Cigarette butts, which people throw out of car windows and stub out while walking around the city, aren’t given much thought.

They seem small and inconsequential. However, the damage they cause is inevitable.

It can be difficult to see the damage, which is part of why people often underestimate the severity of the problem.

We don’t see the butts being washed into gutters and into the ocean, to be eaten by marine life that can easily mistake them for food.

Many people might not even realize cigarette butts aren’t biodegradable, making them dangerous to wildlife and the environment.

Speak up

The biggest thing that I think can be done right now to help is to have more cigarette disposals installed in busy places, like bus stops, parks and outside of malls.

As of 2024, Clean St. John’s has installed 40 recycling receptacles around downtown St. John’s, where smokers can dispose of their cigarette butts.

There is evidence that the receptacles are working.

There’s another benefit to collecting the butts: while researching this column, I learned that the cigarette butts people deposit in the receptacles are shipped to Ontario for recycling the tobacco into compost and the filters into plastic lumber!

In 2021, Ms. Hickman observed that there are fewer butts on the street and that they are now being recycled.

“To protect the places we love, we all need to do our part.”

We know the receptacles work, so installing more would be immensely beneficial.

We also need to actively discourage people from littering butts.

If we see our smoker friends or family throwing cigarette butts on the ground, we should remind them to throw the butts in garbage bins, as they are incredibly damaging to the environment and wildlife.

To protect the places we love, we all need to do our part.

If we dispose of cigarette butts properly and install more disposals around the city, they won’t end up in our ecosystems.

Like the Clean St. John’s campaign says: Let’s go butt free.