Alcome scheme: the CNCT reiterates the need to reform cigarette butt management in France

In France, Alcome is currently the organization authorized to finance and organize the collection of cigarette butts in public spaces. Presented as an eco-organization serving local authorities, the system is nevertheless criticized by the National Committee Against Smoking (CNCT), which, in an interview with the Est Républicain newspaper, explains that it sees it as a way for tobacco companies to regain control over an environmental issue linked to their products.[1], to improve their image and weaken public health policies.

Partnerships with a growing number of cities: for example, Besançon

Alcome's mission is to reduce the presence of cigarette butts in public spaces through financial and material support. The organization presents itself as an "eco-organization" accredited by the Ministry of Ecological Transition since 2021 for a six-year term, with a mandated target of reducing the total number of cigarette butts discarded in public spaces in France by 40%. According to Alcome's CEO, Marie-Noëlle Duval, the organization contracts with local authorities to encourage them to take action against cigarette butts. The amount of financial support has been set by the government and can reach up to €2.08 per inhabitant in densely populated urban areas. This support is accompanied by an obligation to provide street furniture: ashtrays and cigarette butt receptacles, to which the organization has added the distribution of individual ashtrays.

In addition to this, there are national awareness campaigns aimed at changing behavior. The stated idea is to encourage smokers to stop throwing their cigarette butts on the ground, in order to keep public spaces clean.

According to the regional daily newspaper L'Est Républicain, Besançon serves as an example of the initiative. The city took over a partnership launched by the previous administration in 2024, and the new municipal team has publicly praised it. In mid-June, a public relations campaign highlighted the 6,000 pocket ashtrays distributed by Alcome, along with a map of the 52 areas particularly polluted by cigarette butts.

Deputy Mayor for the Environment, Guillaume Bailly, also highlighted the annual financial contribution of €245,000. According to him, this sum enabled the hiring of an employee dedicated to cleaning public spaces and the purchase of devices called "Gluttons," designed to vacuum up cigarette butts from the street. The elected official stated that he finds these actions "quite virtuous," while admitting that he doesn't know who actually runs the organization. This lack of awareness is one of the points raised by the newspaper, which emphasizes the opaque nature of the structure for its partner communities.

Behind the workings of Alcome, the power given to the tobacco companies

Alcome was set up and financed exclusively by the major tobacco companies British American Tobacco, Philip Morris, Japan Tobacco and Seita, within the framework of the extended producer responsibility (EPR) provided for by the Environmental Code, and more specifically for tobacco products equipped with filters containing plastic, as well as products intended to be used with them.

The CNCT believes that manufacturers are thus fulfilling their environmental obligations under Article L110-1 of the French Environmental Code, which requires pollutant producers to bear the financial burden of prevention, reduction, and remediation. In other words, the system allows manufacturers to finance a portion of the environmental cost generated by cigarette butts. Indeed, cigarette butts contain toxic substances and non-biodegradable microplastics, and represent a significant cost for local communities.

Alcome is used by tobacco companies as a front in their development of partnerships with local stakeholders, particularly local authorities. The tobacco companies, through their organization, are directly responsible for the pollution generated by cigarette butts, and their objective is by no means to reduce the quantity of cigarette butts in a way that would lead to a reduction in consumption. The Alcome system thus raises questions about the system's independence, its transparency, and also its actual effectiveness.

The CNCT calls for tobacco companies to be made to pay while guaranteeing independence, transparency and increased efficiency in the management of cigarette butts.

For the CNCT, the problem is not only environmental, but also health-related and political. The association asserts that the priority should be the fight against tobacco consumption itself, which, according to Public Health France, is responsible for 68,000 premature and preventable deaths per year in the country.

Amélie Eschenbrenner, head of communications and European advocacy at the CNCT (National Committee Against Tobacco), believes that some of Alcome's actions are counterproductive. She cites, in particular, the distribution of pocket ashtrays, which she believes is likely to encourage consumption rather than reduce it. She also criticizes the organization's communication, which she considers selective and aligned with the interests of tobacco companies. According to her, the campaigns focus on cigarette butts and highlight the uncivil behavior of smokers, but they never address the harmfulness of the products manufactured by tobacco companies. Thus, no campaign or initiative from the eco-organization aims to reduce waste at its source. According to the CNCT, this approach is part of a carefully calibrated communication strategy. Alcome, the CNCT argues, is a greenwashing tool used by the tobacco industry to present a positive image of its environmental actions without challenging its core business. Beyond that, it is even a tool of "entryism," that is, a means for tobacco companies to approach public decision-makers and maintain a form of institutional legitimacy. communication campaigns such as the Megothon These are all examples of this strategy.

In its White Paper, the CNCT therefore recommends, taking into account the specific characteristics of the tobacco industry, that the latter finances the system without participating in its governance. The management of the organization, as well as information and communication campaigns, should be entrusted to an independent body, along with research activities. Such governance would be consistent with France's international commitments under the WHO treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Article 5.3 of this treaty establishes the general obligation to protect the independence of public health policies from any interference by industry and its allies. This obligation applies not only to the health sector but to all public actors involved in the various activities of manufacturers.

At the European level, in a joint statement with other anti-tobacco and environmental NGOs in support of a ban on filters, the CNCT recently called on the EU to strengthen the "polluter pays" principle with independent and binding mechanisms limiting the tobacco industry's involvement to solely financing its past, present, and future environmental actions.[2].

©Generation Without Tobacco

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[1]Serge Lacroix, Behind the fight against cigarette butts, the tobacco industry is lying in wait., L'Est Républicain, published on July 28, 2026, accessed on July 30, 2026

[2]Global treaty on plastic pollution: the EU urged not to export the French and Spanish models of tobacco EPR, National Committee Against Smoking, published on August 12, 2025, accessed on July 30, 2026

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