Cigarette butts are the main polluters of the oceans 🌊
We're building a coalition to advocate for ecotoxicity warnings on cigarette packs, to put an end on littering.
Scientists, NGOs, young generations, companies, and citizens are joining forces to advocate for environmental alerts on cigarette packs in the European Union.
It's crucial to raise awareness on the impacts of littered cigarette butts, denormalise the habit, and encourage better behaviours from citizens, more protective of ecosystems.
The European Commission's Directorate-General for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs (DG MARE) has selected the "Filter the Future" coalition from a pool of candidate projects across Europe for its contribution to improving the health of the world's oceans and the well-being of coastal communities.
For nature and humans, littering just Can't. Go. On.
Cigarette butts are toxic for the ocean: it's a fact. Yet dozens of thousands are still dumped into the nature every second. We need to look at global solution, and swiftly implement it.
Cigarette butts are the main toxic waste in the environment.
They condense more than 2,500 toxic substances such as arsenic, mercury, ammonia, lead and nicotine. Most of them are water-soluble and ecotoxic: they easily spread in water and cause serious damage to biodiversity, oceans, fresh water, soil, forests and cities.
140,000 cigarette butts are improperly littered around the world every second.
Cigarette butts affect the growth, behaviour and reproductive capacity of many organisms such as crustaceans and micro-algae (the basis of the ocean food chain). Research reveals that a cigarette butt soaked in a litre of water kills half of the fish exposed to it.
A nasty habit of littering
It is now more accepted and common to throw a cigarette butt in the street than a tissue or a piece of paper. People who are convinced that cigarette butts are biodegradable and harmless for the environment are the most likely to do so.
It's time we collectively understood that their ‘good end of life’ is in a bin, and that we act accordingly.
Fortunately, studies suggest that it is possible to reduce cigarette butts littering thanks to informational tools and campaigns. Messages about biodiversity, cleanliness and well-being have more impact than legal sanctions.
We demand changes in the
European Tobacco Products Directive
In the next few months, the European Tobacco Products Directive 2014/40/EU (TPD) will be revised (for the first time in 10 years). This text regulates cigarette and roll-your-own tobacco packaging. We are calling the European Union to take bold action by incorporating our following recommendations:
Add ecotoxicity warnings on cigarette/roll-your-own packs
These messages must be displayed alongside health warnings and cover a minimum of 10-20% of packs. They shouldn’t imply guilt or stigmatise: they should raise awareness on the impact of cigarette butts littering and nudge this behaviour to dispose of them more safely.
We recommend that each EU Member States also print these messages on cigarettes, following the example of the new Canadian legislation.
Plan a phase-out of plastic filters by 2030 – and ban misleading messages about biodegradable filters.
The current revision of the Tobacco Product Directive 2014/40/EU should be in line with the EU Directive on Single-Use Plastics (2019/904) aiming to reduce plastic pollution.
Biodegradable filters (plastic-free filters) are not the solution: they are not safe for the environment, since cigarette butts toxic substances also spread through ecosystems.
Make tobacco manufacturers pay for the costs of removing and cleaning up cigarette butts.
Cleaning up and removing cigarette butts costs yearly millions of euros for local authorities.
The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) of the tobacco industry must be engaged: they should contribute to the costs of cleaning and depollution, following French regulations
Frequently Voiced Doubts
Not all smokers stopped after the introduction of health warnings on packs in 2014, true. But many did, and more people are expressing a desire to quit their addiction to nicotine to protect their health.
Our demands won't put an end to all littered cigarette butts in European waters, soils, forests, and cities. But it is a crucial starting point to raise global awareness and step up the fight against the toxicity of the 140,000 cigarette butts littered worldwide every second.
PS: Did you know that undermining the effectiveness of health warnings is one of the formidable strategies deployed by the tobacco industry?
Indeed it would. But that's not achievable right now. What is feasible is to reduce pollution from improperly discarded cigarette butts thanks to the current revision of the European Tobacco Products Directive (2014/40/EU).
We might also ask for red-coloured filters to raise awareness of their toxicity. Or create compartments in packs for disposing of cigarette butts. Or even call for rubbish bins on every street corner! There are dozens of ideas that would definitely be worth examining, but let's start with a small, achievable victory.
The process of revising a European directive takes time. It takes even more time when tobacco lobbyists are delaying the introduction of new legislation. Firstly, the European Commission drafts proposals for amendments. They are presented to the European Parliament and Council for approval. If there are any disagreements, proposals may go back and forth between institutions.
As a coalition, we need to be mobilised throughout the process: the more we speak out and join the coalition, the more likely it is that our demands will be accepted. It may take a few years, but the collective success will be even greater!
Behind the coalition
The coalition was formed following a gathering of European citizens who took the initiative, on their own names behalf, to join forces to carry out this common advocacy. We are driven by our personal conviction to serve the common good. We have no interests to declare.
Trained scientific diver and former fundraising campaigner for WWF and Amnesty International, Céline Duval now studies the sociology of environmental policies at the Jean Jaurès University in Toulouse, France.
Trained in European Politics and International Relations, Gabriele Sorce now works as Education and Policy Officer at The Good Lobby – an NGO improving the advocacy capacity of civil society organisations while making corporate lobbying more transparent, ethical, and sustainable.
Julia Kasten is a political scientist with experience in European legislative work, project manager for children's education on marine protection and is committed to animal and environmental protection.