While cigarette smoking in public not only pollutes the air, a bigger nuisance is the massive litter of the butts. It is estimated that several trillion cigarette butts are littered worldwide every year. Despite of several public campaigns and smoking bans in public places, the problem still persists and one of the biggest issues is that smokers don’t fully understand the consequences of their actions or they have rationalized the behaviour.
UK designer Ben Forman has come with a brilliant idea of turning the act of littering into something that would add to the beauty of outdoor spaces. Forman’s ‘Cigg Seeds’ are biodegradable cigarette filters that are embedded with wild flower seeds. Whenever a butt is thrown on to the ground, they will flourish into beautiful flowers. Even though this solution might not be fully practical in urban areas, it certainly would be very beneficial for public parks, beaches and other green zones.
“An estimated 10 million Britons still suck down cigarettes faster than a troupe of aging rockers in rehab straining to cough out another hit tune. In the UK, cigarette butts sully streets and parks everywhere. What if this nasty habit could contribute to, rather than subtract from, the beauty of outdoor spaces? Cigg Seeds aim to do precisely that. A variety of smokes outfitted with biodegradable filters that contain wild flower seeds, they sprout and blossom into wildflower meadows when finished and flicked, or deposited on the ground. Butts into blooms. Cigarettes into snowdrops—the floral not frozen variety, to be sure.” – says Ben Forman
