A study conducted by The Pennsylvania Litter Research Study shows more than 96 million cigarette butts have been thrown out of moving vehicles as they drive along Pennsylvania roadways. The study was done earlier this year for Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, which was just a pilot effort to help develop methods that will be able to be used nationwide for another study done by Keep America Beautiful. This information is all according to a man named Robert Craggs of Burns and McDonnell, that is an engineering,architecture,construction,and a consulting firm company. This company is in Kansas City, Missouri. 

   They had people in fields counting not only cigarette butts but other pieces of litter as well. The final number came out to be 259,467,023 total pieces. This number was reported by Craggs at the recent 2019 litter summit that is hosted in Harrisburg by KPB, that is the Pennsylvania department of transportation. 

   There was a variety of different types of litter found but of all of them cigarette butts were the largest category it was 37.1 percent of the litter followed by pieces of plastic at 30.4 percent, after that is paper at 12.2 percent. These are the three higher percentages of litter found. The four smaller are metal at 6.4 percent, organics at 4.2 percent, tire treads at 3.1 percent, and the lowest percent was glass at 1.1 percent. 

   Patrick McDonnell, the secretary of the DEP, had noted that cigarette butts are not simple litter, and that they are in fact more than bits of paper. There are all different types of chemicals that went into producing them, chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, arsenic and so many more. To discover these numbers means that this study has covered 180 sampling areas along different Pennsylvania roadways, expressways, and rural backgrounds across the entire state of PA. The length of each area covered was 300 feet by 15 feet, that is the length of the exterior. The interior area was 15 by 15, items that were smaller than four inches were also noted in the research. 45 percent of the litter was larger than four inches. 

   Other pieces of litter that were recorded found were beer cans at 6.3 percent, water bottles at 5.1 percent, parts and pieces of vehicles is 4.8 percent, and cups from fast-food places is 3.2 percent. 

   There was a survey done on people about the litter problems and all this information. 62 percent of the percent of the people who took the survey said that littering is a major problem. 34 percent said it was only a minor problem. 24 percent felt that littering is not a problem at all and that is people that don’t care and litter in their everyday lives. 75 percent of  respondents said that littering impacts their quality of everyday life. 85 percent agreed with this statement made and added that this is an environment that needs fixed. The fast- food packaging is 45 percent of all the litter found, according to the survey respondents. The plastic bags 16 percent, its second after fast-food trash. The third place goes to non-alcoholic beverages at 14 percent. This is information stated by the people that responded to the survey. The people that were being interviewed about this whole issue also stated that they believe that the reason for people littering is because they just simply don’t care. 60 percent of respondents made this statement. They also believe that it is just more convenient for people to throw their trash out the window of their car while they drive then to properly dispose of it. This statement was made by about 50 percent of the people that took the survey.