The No. 1 man-made contaminant in the world’s oceans is the small but ubiquitous cigarette butt — and it has mostly avoided regulation.
Thanks to campaigns, initiatives, and a number of eye-opening documentaries, awareness of pollution – particularly in our oceans – is on the rise every day.
There’s a concerted effort, especially among the younger generation, to tackle plastic pollution and waste, as well as the impact it’s having on climate change.
When most of us think of cleaning up our oceans and cutting down our use of non-recyclable products, we often think of plastic products like straws, cotton buds, drinks bottles, and bags.
Plastic straws are getting all the attention lately, with cities like Vancouver and Seattle banning the use of them. Even major corporations like Starbucks and McDonald’s have jumped on the environmental bandwagon and implemented their own plastic straw ban, citing ocean pollution.
But according to a new study, the source of our collective energy may be misplaced. The report suggests that the biggest man-made contaminant of the world’s oceans is not plastic straws, or even plastic bags, but cigarette filters.
Cigarette filters can cause irreparable damage to our oceans and wildlife. Not only are they ubiquitous, but also their disposal has gone largely unregulated, meaning a nearly unlimited number hit the seas.
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The huge number of them, and their small size, means they’re found everywhere and are easily ingested by animals. Of the 5.6 trillion cigarettes that are made with these filters each year, as many as two-thirds are dumped irresponsibly. The majority of them come with filters made of cellulose acetate – a form of plastic which takes more than a decade to decompose.
As governments and big brands work to reduce their plastic output, the cigarette industry has largely remained quiet about the issue.
A group of activists are committed to changing this though, and have come together to work towards getting cigarette filters banned. The campaign is being bolstered by not only environmental activists, but by linking with those focused on human health too.
And it’s not just committed activists who are aware of the potential damage of the filters—the tobacco companies themselves have reportedly looked into everything from biodegradable filters and distributing portable ashtrays to avoid being held responsible for cigarette litter. But so far, these efforts have fallen flat, with smokers predominantly preferring to flick their cigarette butts.
Cigarette filters are the single most collected item on the world’s beaches during cleanup operations, with more than 60 million of them being picked up over 32 years.
Thomas Novotny, a professor of public health at San Diego State University, said:
"It’s also a major contaminant, with all that plastic waste. It seems like a no-brainer to me that we can’t continue to allow this."
According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, cigarette filters were created in the 1950s by the tobacco industry in an effort to make smoking a “healthier” alternative to unfiltered cigarettes.
“As we now know, claims that filtered cigarettes were ‘healthier’ were fraudulent,” the WHO said in its report.
Most people think the are organic and naturally biodegrade, but in fact cigarette butts are made of the same stuff as camera film, and as they wash into waterways, they leach out toxic chemicals.
Tobacco product waste contains over 7,000 toxic chemicals, including known human carcinogens, which leach into and accumulate in the environment, the WHO stated.
“This toxic waste ends up on our streets, in our drains and in our water. Research has shown that harmful chemicals leached from discarded butts, which include nicotine, arsenic and heavy metals, can be acutely toxic to aquatic organisms,” the report said.
An assemblyman in California proposed a ban on cigarettes with filters altogether, though couldn’t get his proposal out of committee. While a New York state senator has created legislation to provide a rebate for cigarette butts returned to ‘redemption centres’, though this idea has also been delayed.
The most successful scheme so far is in San Francisco, which has an additional 60-cent fee per pack of cigarettes, raising around $3 million a year, to help with the costs of cleaning up discarded cigarette filters.
One of America’s biggest anti-smoking organisations – the Truth initiative – are also battling to cut out filters, and recently launched a new campaign to urge people to cut down. While the Cigarette Butt Pollution Project is also working towards the same goal.