Local resident Danielle Richardet has made a personal mission of removing cigarette butts from Wrightsville Beach.  Over the past 100 days, she has collected over 35,000 butts.  Her goal is to ban smoking on the beach and have appropriate disposal receptacles installed.

On her blog, Danielle writes:

"Not to keep repeating myself... but for anyone who doesn't know.... cigarette filters are made from a material called "Cellulose Acetate." Thousands of (plastic) fibers that will never biodegrade. Nope. NEVER. So what happens when the cigarette filters get smaller and smaller?? It's called photodegradation. (That's what's happening with the plastics in the oceans.) The filters photodegrade into smaller pieces... BUT... the source material-- cellulose acetate-- never disappears. Instead, it becomes diluted in our environment... becoming part of our environment."

Danielle's film project about the effort won one of three spots in Brita's FilterForGood Film Project, earning her a seat at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.  Watch it now.