Saving the ocean one butt at a time
Meet Lisa Chen, a marine biologist in Canada who created Let’s Talk Butts, a global conservation and education campaign focused on clearing cigarette butts, the world’s most littered item, from our oceans, and empowering non-English speaking communities to drive their own clean-up campaigns.
Raised in a conservative Chinese Canadian family, Lisa always had an affinity with the ocean. After graduating from university, she was determined to use her biology degree to fight climate change, but when she struggled to find a job, decided to travel around south-east Asia for six months instead.
It was on this trip that Lisa found herself on a remote beach in Malaysia that was covered in plastic waste and cigarette butts. Curious about why residents didn’t step in to clean it up, Lisa discovered that it wasn’t a lack of care that stopped them, but a gap in knowledge. Information about the impact of plastics and cigarettes on the environment had never been translated into their language.
Lisa realised that to solve the climate crisis, global inequality needed to be addressed. She returned to Canada on a mission to combine science with social justice and in 2019 launched the Let's Talk about Butts campaign to raise awareness . The campaign educated people about the microplastics and toxins contained in cigarettes, and the power of a single butt to contaminate 500 litres of water for ten years.
What started as a local project in Canada has now scaled to five other countries. Lisa’s website helps communities around the world map out cigarette hot spots and create safe collection containers to ensure the butts get recycled. True to her word, campaign pamphlets have been translated into local languages to help drive a bigger change.
I have learned we will not win the race against climate change unless we fund more than just science education. We also have to fund economic development and empower people to be confident about reaching decision-makers.
