Otago University natural history film-making student Nick Holmes (23) has started the petition, asking the council to create a bylaw making dropping cigarette butts in the street unlawful after researching a film he made for an assessment.
While making the five-minute documentary Smoking Kills, Mr Holmes calculated that "conservatively" about 720,000 butts were flushed into Otago Harbour via Dunedin's stormwater system each year.
Cigarette butts, which used to be made of cotton, were now plasticised and could survive for up to 15 years in water, the keen surfer and diver said.
They contained up to 4000 chemicals, many toxic, which dissolved slowly in the water or inside animals that ingested them.
His film follows the likely journey of one cigarette butt dropped on a Dunedin street - through the unfiltered stormwater system into Otago Harbour and out to sea, and to where it could end up, in the stomach of a turtle 4000km away.
"I thought there was no point in making something entertaining. I'm here to confront issues, so I might as well try to."
The petition will also ask the council to pay for the installation and maintenance of more cigarette butt receptacles around the city.
A council spokesman said the council placed receptacles in the inner city several years ago, but at present there was no work being done which was specifically related to cigarette butt litter.
Otago University natural history students' "Wild Dunedin" series of documentaries will screen at 7.30pm on Dunedin's Channel 9 on October 23, October 30 and November 6.
