A California surfer has turned one of the most stubborn forms of beach litter into something unexpectedly useful.
A newly released documentary, "The Cigarette Surfboard," tells the story of a bespoke surfboard made from 10,000 cigarette butts gathered on California beaches.
Here's what to know
As the Santa Monica Daily Press reported, the online premiere of The Cigarette Surfboard runs from Sept. 15-27 and is timed to align with International Coastal Cleanup Day on Sept. 19.
The film follows Venice and Santa Monica native Taylor Lane as he tries to turn discarded cigarette filters into a functional surfboard. Lane said the harder part was making the waste usable, not finding enough of it.
"We had thousands of butts come off Santa Monica beaches, and surprisingly, this was the easiest part of building the boards due to how ubiquitous cigarette butt litter is on our beaches, unfortunately," he told the paper.
Filmmakers say cigarette butts are both the most littered item in the world and the most commonly collected item on beaches in the United States.
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Because cigarette filters contain plastic, something many people do not realize, this waste can remain in the same coastal places where people swim, surf, and spend time outside.
More background
The SMDP reported the roughly 93-minute film grew out of an idea Lane began pursuing in 2017, when he entered a Vissla and Surfrider Foundation contest centered on surf craft made from upcycled materials.
Filmmaker Ben Judkins, who met Lane through the Santa Cruz surfing community in 2014, started filming as soon as the project got underway.
"I knew this was a story worth following, and began filming from the very first butt," Judkins explained to the publication.
Judkins said he wanted the documentary to feel hopeful and action-oriented rather than defeating.
"We set out to make a film that was solution-driven, with an optimistic outlook for the future of our planet, and to ultimately be able to inspire people to take action," Judkins told the SMDP.
What's being done?
To gather material for the boards, Lane said the team worked closely with Heal the Bay on beach cleanups. He estimated that they collected about 100,000 cigarette butts from beaches around California and processed them into surfboards, per the paper.
Getting the boards to work took repeated experimentation.
"The first Ciggy Board actually didn't work, so we learned from those failures and made ones that did," Lane revealed to the SMDP.
With volunteers helping collect cigarette butts and professional surfboard shapers contributing their expertise, later versions became lighter, stronger, and more functional.
The effort has reached beyond film and art into public policy as well. Santa Cruz County and the cities of Santa Cruz and Capitola have moved to ban sales of single-use cigarette filters, and those ordinances are set to take effect in 2027.
"These are the first laws of their kind, and proof that local action can help change the world," Judkins concluded to the outlet.
Where can I learn more?
Lane's surfboard is a striking example of what can happen when someone treats beach litter as a design problem instead of an inevitability. These stories look at the damage cigarette butts do in waterways, the push to turn that waste into something useful, and other ideas that could keep more plastic debris out of the ocean.
• Scientists found global waterways contaminated by cigarette butts at alarming levels.
• Scientists found char that traps pollution after heating cigarette waste without oxygen.
• Through the Precious Plastic machine network, designers are repurposing 1,400 tons of waste yearly.
• At Virginia Tech, engineers are pursuing breakthroughs that could revolutionize how plastic gets recycled.
• A startup built an innovative solution to stop microplastics before household water reaches oceans.
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