Thanks to Butt Blitzers near and far, our 2025 Butt Blitz collection broke records! In just 46 days, a whopping 2,065 volunteers accumulated a total of 96,781 filthy, toxic, and poisonous butts. That averages out to 2,104 butts per day. Yikes! We found them on the sidewalks and the streets, in the grass and on the trails, near the trash receptacles and the ocean — we found them everywhere.

Kids and adults of all ages participated too. School groups, the Pacifica Police Department, individuals in Northern and Southern California, and friends of the Pacific Beach Coalition did their part to catch ’em all before the first big rainstorm arrived on November 5. That means together we prevented nearly 100,000 butts from polluting our storm drains, waterways, and landfills.

This staggering number is worth taking a moment to acknowledge. It’s also an important reminder of how much work there still is to do to stop butts from polluting the ocean and the marine life that calls it home. Worldwide, approximately 10 billion cigarette butts are tossed each day and approximately 8.5 million cigarette butts are tossed every minute. As a reminder, cigarette butts are made of plastic, not paper, and contain many microplastics and toxins that leach into the water. Holy smokes!

You can continue to collect butts and log them all year long. Be a Butt Buster and start logging today.

Our 2025 Butt Queens

We’d like to give special thanks to three Butt Queens who each picked up thousands of butts:

• Terri with 31,489 butts
• Saeko with 12,500 butts
• Pauline with 4,250 butts

Butt Blitz Over the Years

PBC has been hosting an annual Butt Blitz since 2019 when we first collected 91,721 butts in 52 days. Last year, our Butt Blitz totaled 72,729 butts, which means we amassed 24,052 more butts this year.

Over the years, our Butt Blitz event has brought in a total of 482,821 butts that are then sent to TerraCycle to be recycled into items such as guitar picks and outdoor picnic tables.

Since 2014, when PBC began counting cigarette filters at monthly cleanup events, we’ve collected more than 2.3 million butts.

Get Involved at a Monthly Cleanup

We pick up butts at every cleanup too. Check out our calendar of events and sign up for one near you. We also encourage you to drop off the butts you collected on your own at our cleanups too.