Erion Care leads cigarette‑butt clean‑up in Montesilvano, Italy

On Saturday 11 July, Erion Care and the volunteer group Plastic Free organised a public clean‑up and awareness day on Via Livenza in Montesilvano, Italy. The event began at 09:00 with an information session on the environmental harms of discarded cigarette filters, followed by a beach‑side collection where volunteers weighed and documented the waste to demonstrate the impact of collective action.

The campaign, the second stop after a record‑breaking day in Milan, targets the second‑most common single‑use litter on EU beaches. Filters, made of cellulose acetate, can take years to degrade and a single butt can contaminate up to 1 000 liters of water, threatening plant growth and wildlife. Letizia Nepi, Erion Care’s general director, said, “Citizen participation is the most effective tool to combat butt littering.” The initiative also highlights that 40 % of Italians are unaware of recent stricter littering penalties, reinforcing the consortium’s goal of broader EU compliance under the Single‑Use Plastics directive.