Cigarette Butts could be key to new Road Surfaces

Cigarette Butts being carelessly discarded onto the floor is without a doubt the worst case of littering undertaken by humans. Hopefully though, scientists think they have a better use for them.

Obviously not all, but some smokers really do have a selfish mindset when it comes to discarding their waste. Why is it okay to throw your soggy cigarette butt on the floor? Out of the car window? Just stop it.

It’s litter, and it contributes to harming the environment. Watching these butts pile up in the corner of a city has to be one of my least favourite sights. Despite there being fines in place, there are still people with no cares for the world.

If this was you, I hate you. (Image: Alamy)

Not all hope is lost anyway, since scientists at RMIT university in Australia think they have the solution to recycling these butts. Their proposal is to use them towards creating our pavements and roads.

Apparently, the team were able to mix up a load of them into asphalt and prove that the resulting mixture is very capable of heavy traffic, as well as reduced thermal conductivity.

While this gets rid of a load of litter, it also helps towards reducing the urban heat island effect which is common in a lot of cities.

(Image: Getty)

6 trillion cigarettes are produced a year, which leads to around 1.2 million tonnes of waste. Even though smoker figures are decreasing, they’ll probably rise again by 2025 due to population growth.

Cigarette butts don’t seem like a big deal when thrown on the floor, but people forget they’ve just thrown a filter full of horrible chemicals to the floor, leaving potential for all these chemicals to be released into soils. The damage that it can be make is potentially huge.

Are you guilty of throwing a cigarette butt on the floor? If you’re a smoker then you almost certainly are but have you changed your ways? Or is it proving difficult to get out the habit? …or are you just a piece of filth?

Let us know in the comments below!

Source: RMIT