Cigarettes and the environment

I have never smoked, so I really don’t understand the attraction, but I do understand the frustration when I see so many cigarette butts lying on the ground. It always baffles me, how many people just toss their butts rather than disposing of them properly. This, along with a couple of recent discussions with people who want to quit, inspired me to look up the impact of cigarette waste on the environment. I found an article provocatively titled “Cigarette: an unsung anthropogenic evil in the environment.”

The article from Shah, Bhatt, and Soni (2023) reviews past research on how much waste cigarettes account for and the potential impacts of all of the different chemicals in a cigarette on the environment. First, around three-quarters of smokers toss their cigarette waste into the space around them rather than properly disposing of it. This means that up to 30% of global litter is cigarette waste. The cigarettes are non-biodegradable. In addition, they contain over 7000 toxicants that have been shown to negatively impact wildlife, especially aquatic wildlife. While there hasn’t been a lot of research to this end, many of the toxins in cigarettes are known to harm plant health by affecting growth, germination, and development. The filters are also problematic because they can still contain harmful chemicals that will then leach out into the environment, and they are often made of plastic, which will not decompose.

We think of the air quality impacts of cigarette smoke, but the consequences of littered butts are also concerning as the toxins have the potential to negatively impact both plants and wildlife. As estimates indicate that the number of smokers will increase significantly through both changes in marketing strategies and population growth, this is a large concern that should be addressed. The issue is that it is too easy to sweep a few butts into the gutters and forget about them.

What are your thoughts? if you are a smoker, do you throw your butts anywhere you are, or do you dispose of them properly? Have you thought about the consequences of releasing all those toxins into the environment? If you aren’t a smoker, what do you think can be done about this issue?