TobaccoReporter logo

Tag: Cigarette Butt

  • Cigarette Butts Back in Focus Ahead of COP11

    Cigarette Butts Back in Focus Ahead of COP11

    The 11th Conference of the Parties (COP11) of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) begins next week in Geneva with the purpose of eradicating tobacco and nicotine products across the globe. The gathering will cover broad topics, including tobacco marketing, youth e-cigarette use, and public health strategies, but the topic of cigarette butts appears to be gaining traction.

    WHO officials will address the environmental impact of cigarette waste—saying 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered globally each year, creating toxic microplastics—and are expected to call for an outright ban on plastic filters in their proposals, arguing they offer negligible benefits to smokers.

    “The best thing that we could see for the environment is getting rid of filters altogether,” Andrew Black, acting head of the secretariat of the FCTC, said this week. “These discarded butts are toxic and a significant source of plastic pollution, due to their filters, which do not biodegrade.”

    Industry representatives, such as Greenbutts CEO Tadas Lisauskas, are closely monitoring discussions, emphasizing the need for practical, balanced solutions that consider both environmental concerns and the livelihoods of tobacco farmers and manufacturers.

    “Unfiltered cigarettes would reintroduce hazards society moved away from generations ago,” Lisauskas said. “A policy intended to protect public health should not expose consumers to additional, immediate physical harm.

    “Pretending that filters must be banned to solve littering is a false choice. The environmental problem can be solved without removing a proven exposure-reduction feature.”

  • New Coalition Calls to Ban Plastic Cigarette Filters

    New Coalition Calls to Ban Plastic Cigarette Filters

    In an article written for Recycling Magazine, the No Plastic Filter! organization said that today (May 13) “marks the launch of the international No Plastic Filter campaign, uniting voices across the planet for a ban on plastic cigarette filters.” It further said, “A growing coalition of citizens, businesses, institutions, scientists, NGOs and local authorities worldwide is calling on policymakers to take action.”

    The No Plastic Filter-campaign is an initiative by Dutch NGO Fair Resource Foundation, which is part of the Dutch Plastic Cigarette Butt Collective.

    “Plastic cigarette filters are the single most common form of plastic pollution globally,” the article said. “It is estimated that billions of filters end up in the environment every day.”

    “Even if 90% of used cigarette filters would be discarded in a bin, it would still be a massive environmental problem,” campaign leader Karl Beerenfenger said. “That’s why awareness raising and cleanups are not a solution, although the tobacco industry likes to place responsibility on smokers by financing those activities.’’

    The article claims cigarette filters are useless, merely “marketing tricks inserted by tobacco companies to placate health concerns,” and that the World Health Organization calls cigarette filters ‘’problematic and avoidable plastic’’ and calls on governments worldwide to ban all filters. The No Plastic Filter campaign said it aims at the Global Plastics Treaty, which is currently being negotiated by the United Nations, and the Single-Use Plastics Directive of the European Union.