Collect cigarette butts, log them and become part of a community that makes our environment cleaner step by step.
Kippenhelden is a participatory platform for everyone who no longer wants to ignore carelessly discarded cigarette butts.
Together we collect butts, dispose of them properly and make visible how big the problem really is.
Join in – every butt counts.
The idea for Kippenhelden came from a personal challenge:
Collect 10,000 butts within one year.
What began as a personal tracking tool quickly grew, because more and more people asked:
Can I join in too?
Today it has become a platform where exactly that is possible: collecting butts together and making it visible.
Take what others leave behind.
In under a minute on Kippenhelden.
Many small actions become a real movement.
Cigarette butts contain thousands of pollutants, including nicotine as well as heavy metals such as arsenic, lead and cadmium. The butts act like small pollutant reservoirs that gradually release these substances into the environment.
Rain washes pollutants out of cigarette butts. Through soils they reach the groundwater, and via sewers and treatment plants they reach rivers, lakes and seas. Even low concentrations can harm aquatic organisms. Nicotine in particular is toxic to many aquatic creatures.
Cigarette filters are made of plastic fibres and break down only very slowly in the environment. This creates microplastic particles that are ingested by animals and can spread through ecosystems.
Every year, an estimated 4.5 trillion cigarette butts end up in the environment worldwide. This makes them one of the most common types of waste of all, burdening ecosystems for many years.
Then pick it up.
A small gesture.
A visible sign against indifference.
