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Mark Jarema sees them everywhere — at the grocery store where he shops, at the gas station when he's pumping fuel, outside of a restaurant when he goes out to eat.
He feels surrounded, but he's fighting back.
"It's a big problem," he said. "We call it ‘third-hand smoking.'"
Jarema said cigarette butts are full of chemicals and toxins, up to 600 apiece. "It's a safety hazard for small children," he said. When it rains, the butts are swept into water systems and the sheer magnitude of them can create problems for water supplies and wildlife.
Jarema knows his stuff. He rattles off figures of how many cigarette butts are cast off a year (2 billion pounds), what they're made of (cellulose acetate), and how long it can take filters to break down (years).
On a Monday afternoon assignment at New York J & P Pizza's parking lot in Taylorsville, he strides quickly, easily estimating the numbers.
"500 around here," he said. He walks over to the back door and points down. "About a hundred by the door."
Customers can order a number of services from Jarema: Butt Busters will clean from pavement, handpick from landscaping and dig butts out of sand pits. As Jarema gets to work, a sign posted nearby declares the message for curious passers-by: "Watch out. Cigarette butt cleaning in progress."
Jarema said about 80 percent of cigarette butts he finds are littered within 10 feet of a receptacle.
He stops at a sand pot by the front door. "This is the worst part," he said, gloved hands scooping out butts and sand, gathering the material that will be shipped to the landfill. "There is no commercial means to recycle them," he said. "No one's cracked that code yet."
Monday to Thursday, Jarema is out to customers, and Fridays are designated for sales for the business based in Sykesville.
Max Sweet, co-owner of J&P, said the no smoking inside ban brought double the butt litter in their parking lot.
"I took a chance on him and it's worked out well for both of us," Sweet said. "It's kind of an as-needed kind of thing."
Sweet, who has used the service for a few months, said he was impressed at Jarema's enthusiasm. "He's one of those ‘whistle while you work' kind of guys," he said. Jarema started the business this past October.
"We took all winter to do our marketing materials," he said. "Cigarette butts aren't really at the top of people's mind in the cold weather."
He said to his knowledge, Butt Busters is the only business like it in the country.
Current assignments range from Bethesda to Annapolis and Gettysburg. Jarema thinks it's because the communities are more tourist and green-focused. He works mostly for restaurants and businesses, where owners often think their employees will do it, and realize the pick up is just not being done. He said the recent law banning smoking inside establishments has made the problem worse.
A new goal is trying to market to Homeowners Associations.
"Cigarette butts and dog poop are the two biggest complaints to the Homeowner's Associations," he said, adding that he cleans up dog poop as well.
Is Jarema a smoker himself?
"We're not anti-smoking, we're just anti-littering," he said in admittance, adding he was going to try kick the habit through hypnosis. "I'm hoping to stop by the end of the week."
He doesn't see the constant tax increases on cigarettes as drastically reducing the need for his business. "There will be plenty of smokers," he said. "It's the most littered item in the world."
Doubt him?
"Next time you go to the grocery store, just look down," he said.
E-mail Angie Cochrun at acochrun@gazette.net.
