The road that passes our house was completely resurfaced two months ago; all the road markings were repainted in crisp clear paint and the whole place looked like new.

Things have degraded a little since then.

Earlier this week, walking to the local corner shop I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of fag butts littering the gutter. It’s just a 90 second walk between doors so on the walk back I thought I’d try counting the expired cigarette ends.

Obviously I wasn’t expecting it to take me as long as it did, but then, I hadn’t realised there would be approximately 475 butts, on just one side of the road.

Aside from being unsightly, they’re also very harmful to the environment. Cigarette butts are the largest single contributor to global litter and because they’re composed of plastic they can take between 2 and 25 years to degrade. They have been found in the stomachs of fish, birds, whales and other animals. Additionally, the toxic chemicals that the filters trap can also leach into water supplies.

Portsmouth City Council seem to be aware of the problem, but their measures to eradicate it, or at least subjugate it by pro-active cleaning, seem to have had little effect.

To it’s credit the council has an online report it service, which can be used to highlight such issues so they know where to send people. I just reported the butts issue, so it’ll be interesting to see when someone arrives with a bin.

Of course, the problem is not the fact that the council haven’t been cleaning up properly. They shouldn’t have to clean up at all; then the world would be cleaner and nicer and our rates could be spent on something more constructive.