A couple of days ago, I participated in the annual beach cleanup; right here in Ao Nang as part of Project AWARE’s international cleanup day. Altogether, volunteers have collected in total about 200 kilograms of debris. Ao Nang beach is a little over 1 kilometer long. I myself had only walked about 300 meters in one hour and collected up to 1 kilogram of rubbish, most of which consisted of cigarette butts. Cigarette butts are a major environmental problem and can be found in the stomachs of birds and many marine animals. They contain numerous carcinogenic materials, pesticides and nicotine and are continuously dumped into the environment every year. The heavy metals in cigarette butts leak into the marine environment when soaked in water and contrary to what people think, they are not biodegradable. http://oceanslug.com/2014/10/04/fish-tails-and-chicken-bone/#more-612