“The Butt Hike” initiative is a project by molecular biologist Andreas Noe, better known as The Trash Traveler. It aims to alert and raise awareness about the impacts of their habits at home and on the streets, particularly about the final destination of cigarette butts thrown on the ground – the ocean. Our actions and our cities affect the health of this important ecosystem.

For this campaign, The Trash Traveler team set the goal of collecting 1 million cigarette butts along the Portuguese coast over a 2-month period. This purpose was achieved and exceeded, making a total of 1.1 million cigarette butts with the support of a community of 600 people in 70 initiatives held between August and September 2021. Cigarette butts are the largest item of plastic waste found worldwide and are full of toxins. In Portugal, 1.1 million cigarette butts are generated as litter in 2.5 hours.

For the collected cigarette butts, The Trash Traveler aims to implement circular solutions and as such, the cigarette butts will be recycled with mushrooms and the end product can be used to build a small house for future awareness events. In the meantime, the cigarette butts (which literally form a mountain of trash) will travel to schools, universities, festivals, and other events to raise environmental awareness.

In the words of the team responsible for the butt walk, “A community raises its voice to care for the planet.“

Learn more at THE BUTT HIKE | The Trash Traveler (theplastichike.org)