Cigarettes: Environmental Impact And Pollution

Cigarettes are commonly associated with health issues, but they also have a significant environmental impact. The entire life cycle of a cigarette affects the environment, from tobacco cultivation to the disposal of cigarette butts. The tobacco industry releases vast amounts of carbon dioxide, contributing to global warming and climate change. The cultivation of tobacco also leads to deforestation, with an estimated 600 million trees lost each year. Furthermore, cigarette butts are the most littered item globally, with toxic chemicals leeching into the environment. The plastic filters in cigarette butts do not biodegrade, leading to the pollution of rivers, beaches, and oceans. The cost of cleaning up tobacco-related litter falls on taxpayers, and governments spend millions of dollars annually on these efforts. The environmental impact of cigarettes extends beyond the health risks, posing a significant threat to the planet's natural resources and fragile ecosystems.

Cigarette butts are the most littered item

The actual number of cigarette butts polluting the environment is estimated to be much higher, with 9.7 billion butts polluting roadways and waterways, according to the 2020 Keep America Beautiful survey. This figure does not include the 392 million pieces of other tobacco-related products and packaging, which contribute to nearly 20% of all US litter. The cost of cleaning up this litter falls on taxpayers, with San Francisco spending over $11 million annually to keep its streets and beaches clean of cigarette butts.

Cigarette butts are primarily made of plastic filters that do not biodegrade. They release toxic chemicals, impacting wildlife and the environment. They are often ingested by animals, polluting beaches, shorelines, and the ocean floor. The toxic effects of cigarette butts extend beyond the immediate littering problem, as they contain over 7,000 toxic chemicals that leech into the environment when discarded. The World Health Organization (WHO) has emphasized the need to treat cigarette filters as single-use plastics and consider banning them to protect public health and the environment.

The tobacco industry has a significant environmental impact beyond littering. Tobacco growth and cultivation contribute to deforestation, with an estimated 600 million trees lost annually. The production, processing, and transportation of tobacco result in substantial carbon emissions, equivalent to one-fifth of the CO2 produced by commercial airlines. The energy-intensive curing process of tobacco leaves involves burning wood or coal, further contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. The global cultivation of tobacco also requires significant land use, water consumption, pesticides, and labor, impacting finite resources.

Cigarette waste is toxic to humans and animals

Cigarette filters contain microplastics and are the second-highest form of plastic pollution globally. They are made of plastic fibers (cellulose acetate) that do not biodegrade. The plastic fibers are tightly packed together, making them appear like cotton. Animals may mistake these fibers for food, which can lead to health complications and even death.

Cigarette butts contain toxic chemicals such as arsenic, nicotine, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and heavy metals, which leach into the environment when discarded. These chemicals are harmful to aquatic life, with studies showing that the toxins from a single cigarette butt soaked in water for 24 hours can kill up to 50% of saltwater and freshwater fish exposed to it for 96 hours. The toxins can also accumulate in the bodies of animals and humans, leading to health issues such as cancer.

The tobacco industry has a significant impact on the planet's natural resources and vulnerable ecosystems. The production, processing, and transportation of tobacco contribute to deforestation, the use of fossil fuels, and the release of harmful chemicals into the environment. The industry's carbon footprint is equivalent to one-fifth of the CO2 produced by the commercial airline industry each year.

E-cigarette waste is also a growing problem. Unlike cigarette butts, e-cigarette cartridges cannot biodegrade and often contain metal, circuitry, plastic cartridges, batteries, and toxic chemicals. These devices are often disposed of in the trash, creating toxic and hazardous waste streams.

Tobacco growth causes deforestation

Tobacco growth has been causing deforestation since the mid-1970s, and it is a growing problem. The percentage of deforestation caused by tobacco farming reached 4% globally by the early 2000s, but this figure is substantially higher in countries such as China (18%), Zimbabwe (20%), Malawi (26%), and Bangladesh (>30%).

Tobacco is a common crop in the miombo woodlands of Southern Africa, a dry, fragile, and complex ecosystem home to thousands of plant and animal species. The tobacco industry has been accused of diverting attention from the issue of deforestation by emphasizing the economic benefits of production in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), blaming alternative causes, and claiming successful forestation efforts. However, the scientific evidence demonstrates that tobacco cultivation impoverishes families and destroys the environment.

Tobacco farmers in countries like Malawi face difficult economic conditions. To support their households, they feel pressured to maximize production. Due to consistently low tobacco prices, farmers seek to increase the amount of land they can use to cultivate tobacco leaves, often at the expense of forested land. The farmers clear new land mostly by burning it. Because the soil is often not suitable for long-term agricultural use, yields start to diminish after only a few seasons, prompting farmers to abandon the land and clear more.

Transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) have argued that tobacco-attributable deforestation is not a serious problem and that the industry has addressed the issue through corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. However, there is a lack of effective action to address tobacco-attributable deforestation, and the problem continues to escalate.

Cigarette filters are single-use plastic

Cigarette butts are the most littered item on US roadways, retail areas, storm drains, loading docks, construction sites, and recreational areas. They are also the world's second-most littered item on beaches and waterways. Cigarette filters are made from plastic cellulose acetate fiber, a type of plastic that can take up to a decade to decompose. This means that the butts that aren't eaten by wildlife simply pile up on shorelines or at the bottom of bodies of water.

Cigarette filters are a significant source of plastic pollution. They are the most littered single-use plastic on Earth, contributing to the growing problem of microplastics. The plastic in cigarette butts biodegrades gradually, passing through the stage of microplastics. The breakdown of discarded cigarette butts is highly dependent on environmental conditions.

The tobacco industry's environmental impact is significant, with serious consequences at every stage of the supply chain, including deforestation, the use of fossil fuels, and the dumping or leaking of waste products into the natural environment. The industry has a large carbon footprint from the production, processing, and transportation of tobacco. The majority of tobacco is grown in low- and middle-income countries, where water and farmland are needed to produce food for the region.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised concerns about the environmental impact of the tobacco industry, calling for steps to hold the industry accountable for the destruction it is causing. WHO urges countries and cities to implement extended producer responsibility legislation, which makes the tobacco industry responsible for clearing up the pollution it creates. WHO also calls on policymakers to treat cigarette filters as single-use plastics and consider banning them to protect public health and the environment.

The European Union is taking steps to address the problem of cigarette filters as a hidden source of plastic pollution. New rules will require the tobacco industry to fund the cleaning up of cigarette stubs as part of an initiative to reduce single-use plastic items. In 2018, the European Parliament backed a proposal to oblige EU countries to reduce the plastic in cigarette filters by 50% by 2025 and 80% by 2030. However, these reduction targets were later rejected. Instead, tobacco companies will be responsible for funding awareness campaigns, providing public ashtrays and waste collection, and adding labels to packets of filtered cigarettes to indicate the presence of environment-damaging plastic.

Tobacco industry's carbon footprint

The tobacco industry has a significant carbon footprint, and its environmental impact is felt at every stage of the tobacco supply chain. From tobacco cultivation and curing to processing, manufacturing, distribution, consumption, and final disposal, the industry's activities contribute to deforestation, fossil fuel depletion, water depletion, and pollution.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised concerns about the tobacco industry's environmental impact, noting that it emits as much carbon as some entire countries. According to the WHO report "Tobacco: Poisoning Our Planet," the industry's carbon footprint from production, processing, and transportation is equivalent to one-fifth of the CO2 produced by the commercial airline industry annually. This amounts to 84 million tonnes of CO2 released into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming and accounting for about 0.2% of the global total. The report also highlights the loss of 600 million trees, 200,000 hectares of land, 22 billion tonnes of water, and the social burden that falls disproportionately on developing and lower-income countries.

Tobacco cultivation and curing have significant environmental consequences. The tobacco industry's supply chain is global, with 90% of tobacco leaf production occurring in less developed regions. The cultivation of 32.4 million tonnes of green tobacco, required for the production of 6.48 million tonnes of dry tobacco in 2014, resulted in substantial emissions and resource depletion. This included 84 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions, 490,000 tonnes of 1,4-dichlorobenzene-equivalent ecosystem ecotoxicity, and over 22 billion cubic metres of water and 21 million tonnes of oil-equivalent fossil fuel depletion.

The manufacturing and distribution stages of the supply chain also contribute to the industry's carbon footprint. The resources used in the production of non-tobacco elements such as filters, cigarette paper, and packaging have environmental impacts that are exacerbated by the scale of the industry, with 6 trillion cigarettes manufactured annually. The transportation of these cigarettes globally further adds to the industry's carbon emissions.

Finally, the consumption and disposal of cigarettes have severe environmental consequences. Cigarette butts, made primarily of plastic filters that do not biodegrade, are the most littered item on US roadways, retail areas, storm drains, and recreational areas. Globally, they are the second most common type of litter, with over 9.7 billion cigarette butts polluting the environment each year. These butts end up in oceans, rivers, beaches, and waterways, polluting the water and harming wildlife. The toxic chemicals in cigarettes, estimated at over 7,000, leech into the environment when discarded. Additionally, the costs of cleaning up this litter fall on taxpayers rather than the industry, costing countries like China and India billions of US dollars annually.

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