Clean-up campaign: Volunteers pick up cigarette butts across the country

In more than 70 places across the Netherlands, volunteers picked up cigarette butts from the streets on Saturday. In several countries, the action is called "Cigarette Butt Cleanup Day." Last year, more than 400,000 filters were removed in over 60 Dutch cities, as they are very harmful to the environment.

The joint collection is an action of the so-called Plastic Peuken Collectief, which also calls for an international ban on plastic cigarette filters. "It is estimated that two out of three plastic filters are thrown on the ground or into the water. They may be small, but they are far from harmless. Almost all cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate, a plastic that dissolves into environmentally harmful microplastics. In addition, huge amounts of toxic substances escape from a cigarette butt, affecting soil and aquatic life," the group said.

That is why the collective has called on the government in the past to take the necessary steps to ban cigarette filters so that in the long run this problem will no longer arise. One step has already been taken in recent years, as the Dutch government wants to introduce a European ban on cigarette filters, Rheden Nieuws reported.

Those who want to participate in the cleanup can choose how to proceed, such as using gloves and tweezers. The cigarette butts belong in the residual waste. However, some of the cigarette butts will be collected to make a work of art that will later be exhibited at various locations around the country, starting in Utrecht.