No if's, or and's, and please, no butts.

A major pollutant that nobody really ever thinks about is cigarettes.  Well, not cigarettes really, although they are bad enough, but cigarette butts are a Real problem.

And not even cigarette butts, but cigarette filters.

First of all, filters are pretty stupid when you think about it.  Filters supposedly protected us from the harmful effects of cigarette smoke.  This is about as effective as putting a silencer on a gun to play Russian roulette.  So we've got these filters, brown or white, made out of God knows what material, but I will tell you, this material takes approximately 5000 years to break down, and smokers toss them away without a thought.

Smokers toss away 4.5 trillion cigarette butts per year.  These are major pollutants everywhere, but are incredibly noticeable on public beaches.  You can literally not go 10 inches in any direction without encountering a cigarette butt.  These also become a major danger to marine life.  They are the perfect size to be swallowed by most great life, who will either be choked or poisoned by these pieces of flotsam.

Do yourself and the planet a big huge favor.  Stop smoking.  If not now, when?  If not, you, who?  Yoo-Hoo!