Three mini topics for today! 

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Community spirit

First, I wanted to celebrate the amazing community we have here - there are so many people privately collecting rubbish. Particularly around the beaches and National Park which leaves little for me to grab and definitely feels hopeful that so many people care. There are a couple of excellent community groups cleaning up the rivers too (for more, check out this website on the Ocean Crusaders).

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Leached toxins

Second, I have been thinking about the leaching of toxic waste that occurs from our litter. This is perhaps a less appreciated problem with waste. It is no surprise that we are finding cigarette butts to be the most common item of litter in our surveys - these are reportedly the most commonly discarded litter items globally (in the reported paper, of about 6 trillion cigarettes purchased, an estimated 4.5 trillion butts are deposited in the environment annually; Novotny and Slaughter 2014). Most manufactured cigarette filters are made of a non-biodegradable cellulse acetate, and filters are also thrown away. Cigarette butts are found to contain arsenic, lead and ethyl phenol alongside nicotine and other hazardous substances (Novotny and Slaughter 2014). If left on the ground, these chemicals can leach into the surrounding environment. Novotny and Slaughter evidence some acute cases in their review of toxic waste from cigarettes:

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"Moriwaki et al. [39] found that arsenic, nicotine, [polyaromatic hydrocarbons] PAHs, and heavy metals such as cadmium and lead are released into the environment as part of roadside [tobacco product waste] TPW. [...]"

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Several studies have proved the potential for cigarette butts to leach into water by taking the cigarette butts and soaking or shaking them in water for various amounts of time and then exposing invertebrates or fish to these solutions (Moerman and Potts 2011; Register 2000; Warne et al. 2002; Micevska et al. 2006; Slaughter et al. 2011). The concentration of toxins in the water can be measured and the studies can show how much is required to cause a debilitating impact on the tested species. These studies are also reported in Novotny and Slaughter 2014, and make for concerning reading.

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These leachates from cigarette butts may even contaminate drinking water (The World Health Organization 2017). Many other hazardous substances stemming from waste products such as pesticides, medicines and cosmetics are found in drinking water (see Eriksen et al. 2013; Glaser 2006; Doheny 2008). There are serious environmental implications throughout the life-cycle of cigarettes - deforestation (the World Health Organization 2017), overuse of pesticides, fertilizers and growth regulators (Lecours et al. 2012), health implications of course for the smoker - so if anyone needed additional incentive to quit, we can add hazardous waste creation to the list.

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Leaching from waste is a concern more generally. We have already talked a bit about plastics - the major material waste on Earth - and cigarettes are the most thrown away item. After we throw litter away responsibly it generally finds its way to incinerators or landfill. People are becoming increasingly aware of the production of methane from landfill. We will talk more about this later. The clear take home, as with much of this exercise, is we need to minimise our impacts wherever possible. The less waste we can produce the better. 

e-litter

The final mini topic we raise is e-litter. This, I am particularly guilty of creating. This is the numerous files, photos, messages - emails, social media and this blog/website for instance - that we require power to make, use and store. Estimates of the amount of emissions from the information and communication technology space (this is essentially our computers and phones) is a little greater than the aviation industry - ICT contribute an estimated 3 % while the aviation industry contributes about 2 % of global emissions. Data centers and data transmission networks form a part of the ICT infrastructure, these include the internet and are reported to contribute nearly 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The technology in this space has helped enormously to curb the need for energy to power the internet and other data needs but evidence informs us that we still need to halve the emissions produced currently to get to where we need to be in terms of protecting the planet from unsafe temperature rises and climate change.  

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From a personal perspective, this means that we could cut down on the numbers of photos and videos we make, and use social media less. Personally, I work on computers all day, so holding myself accountable to cleaning up after making files is needed. This is a tough task for me, but a good challenge too. By the end of the month I will try and clean up my act and the e-litter I am creating (with the exception of this blog of course)!

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There are other quick saves we can do too. As noted in last weeks' update, we can reduce pc power consumption and improve battery life on a windows laptop by making small changes that will add up over time to larger savings in energy use. 

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If you are interested in working out your e-emissions, check out this great resource called the Cloud Carbon Footprint.