Cigarette Filters

Cigarette filters rank as the single most littered item on Earth, with 4.5 trillion butts discarded each year. Each filter contains over 7,000 chemicals, including arsenic and lead, leaching into 1,000 liters of water per butt within an hour. Though less voluminous than food packaging, filters exceed Fast Fashion Synthetic Textiles' annual microplastic release by 45% in ground-based ecosystems, and their cellulose acetate takes 10 years longer to degrade than ghost gear's nylon.