World News for Students of English

28-04-2021 07:00

Julian Melcer picks up cigarette butts from Israeli beaches, and he sells pocket ashtrays to smokers to stop them from littering.

Julian has been collecting cigarette butts at a Tel Aviv beach for about three years, and he creates artwork from them. He talks to the people and offers them a solution – an ashtray. It earns Julian about 3,000 to 4,000 dollars a month during the summer, and he is excited that his project has grown so big. He raises awareness and gets to talk to smokers.

Cigarette butts are the single most littered item on the planet, and when they enter our oceans, they may kill marine life. For 32 consecutive years, they have been the most collected item on the world’s beaches, with a total of more than 60 million collected over that time. That amounts to about one third of all collected items and more than plastic wrappers, containers, bottle caps, eating utensils, and bottles combined.

Difficult words: cigarette butt (the part of a cigarette that is left after is has been smoked), ashtray (a small container for tobacco ash and cigarette ends), consecutive (in a row), utensil (a tool or container that is usually used in households).

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