TBA
Raising awareness about the largest form of plastic pollution worldwide.
An increasing number of individuals and organisations are expressing concern about (plastic) cigarette filter pollution — and justifiably so. There are numerous strong and evidence-based reasons to support a ban on cigarette filters.
Almost all cigarette filters are currently made with cellulose acetate, a plasticized bio-based material
Cigarette filters are by number the largest form of plastic pollution worldwide (the most littered anthropogenic (man-made) waste item in the world)
Plastic cigarette filters do not, or very slowly biodegrade in the natural environment
Plastic cigarette filters decompose into microplastics and nanoplastics, accumulating in the environment
Cigarette filters have been polluting water and land for at least seven decades, since the introduction in the 1950s
Cleaning up is impossible (join the annual international cigarette butt cleanup day ‘No Butts Day‘ to help prove it again this year)
Even if 90% of cigarette filters would be discarded properly, still billions of butts would end up in the environment worldwide annually: awareness raising is not enough of a solution
Cigarette filters leach enormous amounts of toxins into the environment, like heavy metals, pesticides,
Cigarette filters may have a carrier effect with the toxic chemicals leached from them (the human and ecosystem impacts of this toxic chemical accumulation are unknown)
Even unsmoked cellulose acetate filters can be toxic to some invertebrates and plants
Cigarettes contain over 7000 toxic chemicals and some of these are readily leached into aquatic habitats
and more:
Draft press release:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oVbD5i63qn3VE42DdnQQCwdSM6aEsTbN/edit