- From 09:30 to 12:00 hours.
- The activity is free and open.
- Attendees must bring plastic bottles to deposit the collected cigarette butts and gloves.
Residents of the city are invited to participate in the event “Your park without butts” that will take place on Saturday, June 29, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Parque de las Tejas, located on 1300 Chacabuco Boulevard. Nueva Córdoba neighborhood.
The activity is organized by the Municipality of Córdoba through the Municipal Entity BioCórdoba, jointly with the Secretariat of Sustainable Environment and Circular Economy and the International Network of Promoters of the SDGs in Argentina.
During the day there will be a talk on the environmental effects of tobacco consumption and the collection of cigarette butts in green spaces and surrounding areas.
Subsequently, there will be a small workshop on making fertilizers made from the remains of cigarette filters.
The event is free, does not require prior registration and is open to the general public. Participants must bring plastic bottles to deposit the cigarette butts and gloves required for the collection.
About cigarette butts
Each of the filters contained in cigarettes is not biodegradable and affects seas, rivers, lagoons, springs and mangroves, which are the most frequent final destination for this waste, since they represent between 30 and 40% of the waste collected in urban and coastal cleaning activities.
WHO figures detail that a cigarette butt takes about 10 years to disintegrate, containing more than 7,000 toxic chemicals. At least 70 of them are carcinogenic to people and animals.
According to the Ocean Conservancy organization, each filter contaminates up to 50 liters of water.
The International Network of Promoters of the SDGs in Argentina warned that cigarette butts seriously affect the environment through the toxic waste they generate.
On the one hand, the tobacco industry emits greenhouse gases. Each cigarette emits 14 grams of CO2 from its cultivation stage to its disposal, according to WHO data. Tobacco smoke contains three types of greenhouse gases that pollute indoor and outdoor air: carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen oxides.
Furthermore, tobacco production requires a large amount of water. In the cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, consumption and disposal of a single cigarette, up to 3.7 liters of water are used. This means that if an average smoker quit the habit, they could save up to 74 liters of water per day.
Another harm is that poorly extinguished cigarettes are the cause of many forest fires, accounting for 5% of total deforestation in the world.
