Padang, West Sumatra

February 28, 2018 - Scubareefing Team

The islands off the coast of Padang, West Sumatra has some of the most beautiful scenery. The beauty of the islands off Padang have been tainted by the presence of cigarette butts. 

Our team visited a few islands off the coast, aided by a local boatman. A steep trek to the top of the island rewarded us with a tranquil view of the island's surrounding. 

Unfortunately, much of the sandy beaches on the island is littered with cigarette butts. The issue of smoking is not new to Indonesia. To the Indonesians, smoking has been deeply embedded in their culture as a convenient way to relieve stress (similar to the reasons why most people smoke on the first place).  Perhaps city life is too stressful for many people today. Not a surprising fact, with all that noise and air pollution. Cigarette butts are toxic trash.

 According to one New Scientist article,  "one cigarette butt soaked in a litre of water for 96 hours leaches out enough toxins to kill half of the fresh or salt water fish exposed to them."