MOST of the 577,000 active smokers in Costa Rica throw their cigarette butts and empty packs on city streets and in gutters, generating 3,029 kilograms of trash daily, according to a statement from the Institute of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (IAFA).The institute estimates the average smoker consumes 10-15 cigarettes per day, the filters of which account for 1,731 kg of garbage per day. Five filters constitute one gram of waste that takes approximately five years to biodegrade, the statement said.“People’s behaviors have changed and they have changed for the worse, because they throw everything on the street and in gutters, where (water) flows into rivers and oceans,” Dario Molina, head of the institute’s tobacco unit, said in the statement.
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