
Hold On To Your Butt (HOTYB)
Show your love for SF!
If you smoke, find and use a buttcan (numbered items on the map) — we’ll recycle all your butts or get a free pocket ashtray from one of the stores on the map (pocket ashtray icon).

What are buttcans and pocket ashtrays?
Buttcans are cigarette receptacles where you can safely dispose of your butts. Pocket ashtrays are fireproof pouches or containers that trap smells and keep butts contained until you can safely throw them away. Carry a pocket ashtray for temporary cigarette butt storage. Use the ashtray again and again.
In the San Francisco Bay Area alone, 3 billion butts are littered annually. You can help change that!
Cigarette butts are plastic.
Cigarette filters are made of tiny threads of cellulose acetate plastic – the same plastic in glasses and sunglasses. Littered butts slowly break up into thousands of plastic threads that pollute our water and soil.
Cigarette butts leach nicotine, arsenic, formaldehyde, lead, cadmium, and more into water and soil, threatening water quality, marine life, and seafood safety.

Resources & downloads
Let's fix this — In the San Francisco Bay Area alone, 3 billion butts are littered annually. You can help change that!
- Download a Hold On To Your Butts 11x17 Poster
(English, Chinese, Spanish) - Download a Hold On To Your Butts Infographic
(English, Chinese, Spanish) - Cigarette Litter Fact Sheet
- Hold onto Your Butt FAQ
- Cigarette Litter Laws and Mitigation
- Success Story: Union Square Business Improvement District
- Report: Preventing Cigarette Litter in San Francisco
- Instagram and blog
What we do:
- Partner with local businesses, nonprofits, and government to install buttcans and provide pocket ashtrays in San Francisco
- Educate that cigarette butts are plastic and toxic
- Remove cigarette butts from beaches and streets and recycle butts
- Advocate for the removal of plastic cigarette filters and the creation of anti-litter policies