Support for Filter Ban at Pollution Summit

Government delegations expressed support for a ban on cigarette filters during the fourth Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4) to develop an international legally binding treaty on ending plastic pollution, according to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

During the weeklong conference, which adjourned April 29, negotiators sought to regulate plastic products according to their utility and environmental harm, with nonessential, polluting plastics slated for complete bans.

At the INC-4 negotiations, several countries proposed banning cigarette filters, including Peru, Panama and Switzerland. The World Health Organization also made a joint statement with the Secretariat of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to call for a cigarette filter and other single-use tobacco plastic product waste ban. Their joint statement called on the INC to acknowledge a WHO FCTC COP10 decision on the environmental impact of tobacco.

The list of plastics to be banned will be finalized at INC-5 starting Nov. 25, 2024, in Busan, Republic of Korea.

Roughly 4.5 trillion used filters, or cigarette butts, are tossed into the environment each year, according to ASH. Filters are made of cellulose acetate that breaks down into microplastics and leaches toxins and carcinogens into terrestrial and aquatic environments.

“It’s essential to remember that we don’t need industry permission to build a healthy environment, free from trillions of cigarette butts and other harmful plastics. We must demand our right to a healthy environment, and governments have a duty, both ethical and legal, to provide it,” said ASH. Executive Director Laurent Huber in a statement. “The right to a healthy environment has been recognized by the U.N. General Assembly. Banning cigarette filters is a step in the right direction to protecting those and many other essential human rights.”

Recycling cigarette filters is not a viable solution, according to ASH. Even if a substantial fraction of cigarette butts could be collected, there is no process for removing the toxins, recycling the plastic or turning the recycled plastic into other products.