Throwing a cigarette butt on the ground may seem like a trivial habit, but it's a behaviour with serious implications. In addition to being illegal since 2020, it also has a number of environmental consequences. It is estimated that around 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are discarded worldwide every year. The tobacco industry, for its part, is responsible for the loss of 600 million trees, the use of 200 thousand hectares of land, the consumption of 22 billion tonnes of water and the death of 8 million people a year.

Cigarette butts are not biodegradable. They are made from cellulose acetate, a plastic fibre that can take up to 10 years to decompose. This means that during the degradation process, microplastics and other toxic substances are released into the environment, at least 250 of which are recognised as harmful and 69 as carcinogenic. Cigarette butts often end up in watercourses, lakes and oceans, and are one of the most common items of waste found during beach clean-ups. This is particularly worrying as a single cigarette butt is enough to contaminate up to 1000 litres of water.

It was with the aim of sensitising the population of Aveiro to this problem that the “CleanUp Aveiro” project was created in 2021. Now in its 5th edition, it continues to be essential, given that street pollution and the improper disposal of cigarette butts still persist. In addition to the collection of cigarette butts, there have also been beach and estuary clean-ups in recent years, which have removed more than 3 tonnes of waste from the environment.

Like last year, a healthy competition was organised between students from schools in the municipality of Aveiro, namely the Agrupamento de Escolas José Estevão and the Aveiro Vocational School. The activities began with awareness-raising activities in each school, with the aim of contextualising the problem, presenting the project's objectives and promoting good practices in collections. The necessary conditions were then created to start the collections in March, which enabled the 1098 participants to collect more than 125 000 cigarette butts by July, totalling around 561 000 cigarette butts collected over the five years.

The project culminated on 7 July with the exhibition of our “Beatão” at Forum Aveiro, where it will remain until the end of September. This installation aims to draw the community's attention, especially smokers, in an attempt to help change behaviours and mentalities regarding the disposal of cigarette butts. The event ended with the presentation of a symbolic trophy and a €500 gift card, offered by Forum Aveiro, to Escola Profissional de Aveiro, the winning school in the competition, responsible for collecting the largest number of cigarette butts.

Later this year, a collection open to the whole community is planned, as a way of continuing to promote active citizenship and working towards a cleaner and more pleasant city of Aveiro, both for those who live there and for those who visit.

CleanUp Aveiro is part of Agora Aveiro’s  “Aveiro mais Verde” (“Greener Aveiro”) project. It is supported by Forum Aveiro as the “Main Partner”, Aveiro Vocational School as the “Golden Partner” and by Veolia Portugal, JR Mudanças, and the Rede Bitakí as “Silver Partners”. The project is carried out in partnership with the Portuguese Association for Environmental Education (ASPEA), Scout Group 249 of Aveiro, Ciclaveiro and BioLiving Association. It is also supported by the Municipality of Aveiro, the Youth Volunteering Programme for Nature and Forests, and the Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth.