About Us
The Let’s Talk Butts Campaign was founded in July 2019 in Mississauga, Ontario, by Lisa Chen as a part of her Stage 3 community outreach project for the Canadian Conservation Corps. The campaign aims at eliminating cigarette butt litter through cleanups, outreach, litter mapping, creating butt collection cans and reaching out to stakeholders. The project has since then scaled and reached people from Canada, Vietnam, the Philippines, and United States. The campaign was formerly funded by the Canadian Conservation Corps and TakingITGlobal , and it is currently funded by Chantiers Jeunesse.
Lisa Chen, Founder
Lisa is a marine biologist, conservationist and educator with a BSc in Biology and Neuroscience. Her work has brought her to Costa Rica, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States. She is the Founder of the Let’s Talk Butts Campaign aimed at tackling cigarette butt litter problems and is actively involved in marine conservation and research, environmental education, habitant protection and waste reduction. She is also the Founder and CEO of Marine Way, an App-based solution for ghost fishing gear in Canadian water. Lisa is currently a Master of Marine Management Candidate at Dalhousie University.
Butt Facts
4.95 Trillion butts are littered annually around the world.
Cigarette butts are the No. 1 littered items in the world.
One butt can pollute up to 500 liters of water.
Butt filters are made from cellulose acetate (a type of non-biodegradable plastic).
Butts can be recycled into plastic pallets and lumber.
Butts can contain up to 60 known carcinogens.
Butts contain harmful chemicals such as cadmium, lead, and arsenic
Butts can leach harmful chemicals within one hour of contact with water.
Toxic chemicals leached by butts can remain in an area up to 10 years.
Butt leaching is known to inhibit plant growth.
Toxin leached into the soil will be biomagnified up the food chain onto your plates.
Butts can cause digestive blockage when ingested by wildlife.
Butts do not decompose, they breakdown into micro- and nano-plastics and bioaccumulate up the food chain onto your plate.
Cigarette filters have no health benefits and only gives smokers a false sense of benefits to encourage smoking.
Contact Us
Question?
Want to get involved?
Want to learn more about our programs?
Need help sending butts off to recycling?
Please contact us, we would love to hear from you!
Lisa Chen
Founder of Let’s Talk Butts
Email: info@oceanicimpact.org