An organization in Quebec wants to hoard 100,000 cigarette butts around the city, with the goal of protecting the St. Lawrence River from one of the "biggest polluters of our waterways".   For the first time in Quebec City, CMONBAG, which aims to protect marine areas and shorelines, is preparing the initiative "I'm not a beggar ..." which will take place on September 14th.   The organizers invite citizens to clean up the city by picking up cigarette butts thrown to the ground. On the day of the event, four drop-off points will be set up to collect cigarette butts, at the corner of Cartier and René-Lévesque Streets, at D'Youville Square, at Durocher Center and at the corner of 3rd Avenue and Avenue. of the Canardière.  

50 million liters of water

  "We know that a single cigarette butt pollutes up to 500 liters of water, so with our 100,000 butts, we want to protect 50 million liters of water in the river," says the organization's director, Claudette The station.   All cigarette butts will then be donated to Toronto-based TerraCycle, which specializes in recycling, to make lawn chairs, says Légaré.   The twenty or so organizers will also give smokers pocket ashtrays to encourage them to "collaborate in the preservation of the environment".   According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, cigarette butts are at the top of the blacklist of the biggest polluters found near Canadian shores.   Last year, a record number of cigarette butts, 560,432, were collected across Canada's shores.