The Hague’s ‘Plastic Knights’ organise cigarette butt clean-up on Saturday 4 July in the Weimarstraat as part of Plastic Peuk Meuk / ‘No Butts Day’
The Hague’s Plastic Knights invite everyone to help make the Regentessekwartier cigarette butt-free on Saturday 4 July. Between 10:00 and 12:00, we will collect all cigarette butts from the Weimarstraat, between Koningsplein and the Wijkpaleis. At 12:00, we will gather and count all the cigarette butts on Regentesseplein.
The first Saturday of July has been known worldwide for several years as “No Butts Day”. In the Netherlands, it has been called Plastic Peuk Meuk for the past eight years. All over the world, people actively collect cigarette butts from the streets and count them. Last year, almost 1 million cigarette butts were reported on No Butts Day.
One cigarette butt pollutes 1,000 litres of water and 10 billion cigarettes are sold in the Netherlands every year. Two-thirds of cigarette butts end up in water and nature. The plastic in the filters then breaks down into microplastics. The cigarette butts also leak substances that disturb soil and aquatic life. Worldwide, 1 million cigarette butts are collected every year.
So two-thirds of the 10 billion cigarette butts per year end up in nature. Cleaning them up, especially worldwide, is an impossible task. The campaign is mainly intended as a signal that cigarette filters should finally be banned.
Plastic Peuk Meuk, or No Butts Day, makes the scale of this silent disaster clear. In addition to creating a cleaner environment, it also raises awareness and builds support for a ban on polluting cigarette filters. The EU banned this type of single-use plastic several years ago. It is time for enforcement.
Anyone who would like to help the Plastic Knights on 4 July can register via plasticridders@gmail.com. You will then be kept informed of further details.