Video: Jack Johnson Surfs a Board Made of Recycled Cigarette Butts

Cigarette butts seem to be everywhere. With an estimated 4.5 TRILLION cigarettes littered every year, it’s no surprise we come across them so frequently. This isn’t good news for aquatic life as the chemicals found in cigarette butts are toxic to fish and microorganisms. Cigarette butts also contain cellulose acetate, a form of plastic. That means they never fully decompose. Yikes.

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So why do so many people toss them on the ground without a second thought? Well, it’s become a cultural norm and most folks don’t know any better. Surfer and musician Jack Johnson says “It’s something from our past that kinda seems badass, but culture changes and hopefully this will be thought of as super lame now.”

To spark conversation and help drive change, Jack Johnson teamed up with industrial designer Taylor Lane and filmmaker Ben Judkins to make “The Cigarette Surfboard.” The duo creates surfboards made of thousands of littered cigarette butts and then collaborates with surfers to make environmental films. Johnson met the ciggy boys in 2018 at the International Marine Debris Conference. After hearing about their project, Johnson invited them out to Hawaii so he could try out a “ciggy board” for himself. Watch to see Johnson shred the shit out of the unique board.