We recognize that cigarette butt litter is a significant contributor to litter in our environment. As the leading manufacturer and marketer of cigarettes in the United States, we are helping reduce cigarette butt litter.
Based on the results of
Ocean Conservancy's 2009 Annual International Coastal Cleanup, more cigarette butts were collected than any other type of litter and cigarette butts accounted for almost one-third of all items collected.
We're partnering with others to address this issue, and educating smokers that cigarettes are litter that should be disposed of properly.
Since 2002, Philip Morris USA has collaborated with
Keep America Beautiful to provide funds to research, develop and launch a multi-year
Cigarette Litter Prevention Program (CLPP). This model KAB program consists of the following strategies:
- communicating messages and supporting education campaigns designed to increase consumer awareness that cigarette butts are litter
- installing ash receptacles at transition points, such as outside a hotel or office where a smoker must extinguish a cigarette
- encouraging the use of portable litter devices which enable a smoker to dispose of our product properly
- encouraging enforcement of existing litter laws
From 2002-2009,
Keep America Beautiful, through its affiliates and partner organizations, implemented the program in over 575 communities in 39 states, Canada and the District of Columbia. In 2009, the program achieved an average 48 percent reduction in cigarette litter in over 200 participating communities.
We communicate about cigarette butt litter prevention to adult cigarette smokers in the following ways:
- through our website
- on-pack
- direct mail programs to adult cigarette smokers
- distribution of more than 2 million portable litter devices
