Taking Action

I consider myself to be someone who cares. I care about people, about small acts of kindness like picking up a sign that fell or saying a genuine thank you and "have a good day" when I get off the bus. I am trying to switch my household into a plastic-free home, I bring my own reusable straw when I go out and lend it to my friends. When I run out of my plastic household items I replace it with a natural alternative/one without plastic. I talk about these little changes with my friends, one of the greatest feelings I have is seeing them make the change. Being conscious when they're buying something if it contains plastic, refusing a plastic bag and using their own reusable foldaway bag, and refusing plastic straws. These are all minor behaviors.

Today I was scrolling through facebook and found a video. It was a 16-year old girl from Sweden. Her Name is Greta Thunberg, and she is speaking politically about our home, Earth. She describes that we should act like the house is on fire. (Here is a link to that video. Hearing her speak so passionately about something we should all care about spoke to me. I've always tried to be mindful, but I know I can do more. But what happens is that I feel I should be doing more and then nothing happens. I do my part, but I can't change the world alone. So I'm going to share my take, my perspective, my tips, my habits. And I will share the knowledge I find that inspires me to be better. And I hope you'll be inspired too. So this first article is about butts.

More specifically, cigarette butts. I have a friend that smokes. Something that bothers me is seeing people throw their cigarette butts on the floor (still lit sometimes). When with my friends I ask that they make sure that it is fully put out and that they put it in the garbage. I fully understand that it still ends up in a landfill somewhere still polluting our world. But today my friend said to me that he didn't find it hard to change his behavior. It only took a few days of being aware. There were a few times that he would forget and I reminded him. But as we were walking the other day he held onto it while we walked until he could find a bin without even thinking about it.

4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered every year.

The littered butts contain toxins that pollute water and could poison/kill local wildlife. If you're reading this then I have some things for you to do. If you smoke, I have no place to tell you to quit. Smoking in general, as well as being bad for you (and I'm sure you know that from the pack) is that it is bad for the environment. I want you to think about where your cigarettes go when you're done. Imagine its life after you've thrown it out your window on the road, down the grates into the water system, into the bush where plants and animals would be affected. Just because it's not in your hand doesn't mean it doesn't live on past you.

Something for everyone to do, next time you go out, take a look at the ground, look by the curb on the road, down in the corner of the pavements, on top of bins (instead of in them). How many cigarette butts do you see? Can you count them? Where will the wind take them? What animal will eat them? What will happen to the quality of the water in your local rivers, ponds, lakes? Will the toxicity harm plants, animals, fish?

Think beyond the end of your cigarette. Put your butt in the bin.