Manufacturing and transport of cigarettes: a little-known ecological impact

As a 2017 report from the World Health Organization demonstrates[1] (WHO), the transport and manufacturing of cigarette packets are the most polluting stages in the production of cigarettes. Their ecological impact is considerable, particularly in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

This is what Imperial Brands, the UK's leading tobacco industry, seems to confirm: “Most of our direct impact on the environment comes from our manufacturing operations“[2].

Indeed, far from responding to a rational and sustainable ecological model, the rapid globalization of the tobacco industry has had as its first consequence the geographical distribution of the different stages required to manufacture a cigaretteIn other words, tobacco grown in Malawi could have been processed and assembled into cigarettes in China before being sold in Europe.

However, it is impossible to find reliable and comprehensive data on this issue. Indeed, while some companies have started to publish reports on their resource consumption and CO2 emissions, most industrialists have not followed suit.

In any case, the few figures published are limited only to immediate and internal emissions, ignoring the indirect damage that such manufacturing activity causes. Above all, the only data available are those put forward by the tobacco industry, which maintains the opacity of its practices in the name of manufacturer secrecy and the fight against counterfeiting..

Thus, if we stick to these official figures, the Imperial Brands group, which owns among others the Davidoff, Gauloise and Gitane brands, would have emitted 218,000 tonnes during the year 2015, corresponding to half a thousand tonnes for every million cigarettes manufactured. Today, the group produces 308 billion cigarettes each year.

It follows that current methods of manufacturing and transporting cigarettes do not guarantee the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9 and its target 9.4 which provides that "By 2030, modernize infrastructure and adapt industries to make them sustainable, through more efficient use of resources and increased use of clean and environmentally friendly technologies and industrial processes, each country acting within its means"[3].