Small cigarette butts, big consequences: Walchwil pupils take action

Equipped with buckets, gloves and litter pickers, pupils from Walchwil’s secondary school set out to collect carelessly discarded rubbish.

In keeping with the school year’s theme, “On nature’s trail”, Walchwil’s secondary school devoted its project days to environmental protection, sustainability and waste. On Wednesday morning, pupils headed out in groups to collect litter around the municipality, aiming to find as many cigarette butts as possible.

Taking part in the “Water Lover Challenge” provided extra motivation. The initiative highlights the environmental harm caused by discarded cigarette butts. According to Clea Winter from the canton of Zug’s littering unit, cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate, a type of plastic, and contain numerous harmful substances. A single butt can pollute up to 1,000 litres of water and takes 10 to 15 years to break down, leaving microplastics behind.

Before heading out with their teachers, the pupils gathered in the municipal hall for an introduction to the subject. They learned that the canton of Zug had deliberately chosen not to build a waste incineration plant. Instead, Zeba, the joint waste management association of Zug’s municipalities, established staffed collection centres in all eleven municipalities. Known locally as “Ökihof”, these centres have a protected name.

One figure shared by Winter gave the pupils food for thought: littering costs the canton of Zug CHF 1.5 million each year. Despite existing regulations, carelessly discarded rubbish remains a visible and costly problem.

Eager to make a difference: Walchwil secondary school pupils collecting litter.  Photo: Patrick Hürlimann (Walchwil, 30 September 2026)

A litter hunt becomes an adventure

Walchwil School hopes the activity will raise awareness. After the introduction, pupils set off in different directions wearing sturdy shoes and high-visibility vests, armed with buckets, gloves and litter pickers.

For teacher Tamara Keiser’s group, the outing became a small adventure. They took a bus from Walchwil station to the Hörndli stop, then headed into a stream gorge. Searching the almost dry streambed, they had to push through thorns and keep their balance on slippery stones while scanning their surroundings for rubbish.

Their finds differed from those of the other groups. Instead of plastic drinks bottles, aluminium cans and cigarette butts, their buckets filled mainly with pieces of polystyrene, plastic and metal. As they gained altitude, their enthusiasm for finding something in the undergrowth or beneath the stones grew too.

Small contributions with a tangible impact

The pupils interviewed responded positively to the activity. Fourteen-year-old Samantha thinks removing rubbish from nature is important because it also helps animals. Twelve-year-old Miriam cannot understand why people drop litter when there are so many places to dispose of it properly.

A figure from the organisation behind the “Water Lover Challenge” illustrates the scale of the cigarette-butt problem: around 137,000 butts are discarded into nature worldwide every second. Given that one butt can pollute 1,000 litres of water, this is a troubling prospect for people and nature, particularly during water shortages.

For twelve-year-old Charles, the activity has already prompted a concrete decision: “In future, I’ll pick up litter that people have left behind.” One less piece of rubbish may seem insignificant. But when many people take part, small contributions can make a tangible difference.