Cigarette butts and the environment: a communication opportunity for cigarette manufacturers

As part of the law for a Circular Economy and against waste, the National Assembly voted, at the end of 2019, to establish REP (Extended Producer Responsibility) sectors. This provision, which requires the tobacco industry to participate, including financially, in reducing waste, is seen by cigarette manufacturers as a communication opportunity.

British American Tobacco (BAT), Seita, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco have thus created the Mission Mégots collective, officially intended to lead awareness campaigns, finance one-off actions by local authorities (beach cleaning, distribution of portable ashtrays), and even help with cleaning roads.

Objective: to return to the negotiating table

In a press release dated August 3, 2020, the collective further explains its approach, by making the tobacco industry " a committed sector which places consultation at the heart of its approach " In particular, the collective announces that it wants to prepare " possible national and local partnerships[1] ". This operation demonstrates the tobacco industry's ability to turn every obstacle into a communication opportunity: while the polluter-pays principle simply aims to get companies to take responsibility for part of the damage their activity causes, the tobacco industry, one of the most polluting in the world, seeks to appear, in the eyes of public opinion, as a responsible sector, legitimate to participate in the development of public policies. However, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control formally excludes this possibility.[2] and French law explicitly prohibits the tobacco industry from entering into this type of partnership.

The filter, a health and ecological nonsense

The industry's commitment to ecology is all the more doubtful given that the issue of cigarette butts appears to be a major environmental problem, organized by the cigarette manufacturers themselves. The filter, in fact, is an invention of the tobacco industry, designed to make people believe that it reduces the harmfulness of cigarettes.[3]. In reality, it allows the smoker to take bigger, deeper and more prolonged puffs, increasing the harmfulness and addiction to tobacco. Thus, the filter having no health justification, an environmental advance would require its removal.

©Generation Without Tobacco

[1] Cigarette butts: the Cigarette Butts Mission is preparing to set up the eco-organization, Le Monde du Tabac, August 3, 2020, (accessed 08/25/2020)

[2] World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Full Text, French

[3] What are you doing against the sheep? », Der Spiegel, November 22, 2019, (accessed 08/25/2020)

Keywords: Cigarette butts, environment

National Committee Against Smoking |