Biodegradable filters: the tobacco industry's false good solution

After a first session in 2022, the negotiations on the United Nations Plastics Treaty are taking place from May 29 to June 2 in Paris in order to reach a legally binding international agreement to put an end to plastic pollution. Cigarette filters, which are a major source of global plastic pollution, will be at the heart of the discussions, as the tobacco industry tries to propose alternatives that claim to be more virtuous but will continue to have a deleterious impact on the environment and health.

More and more countries are looking to move towards a complete ban on cigarette filters. Belgian governments and Dutch who have recently positioned themselves in favour of such a ban.

It is estimated that more than 4,500 billion cigarette filters out of the 5,500 billion cigarettes produced annually by the tobacco industry end up in nature. The filters are mainly composed of cellulose acetate which takes between 10 and 15 years to decompose and release up to 7,000 chemical substances, around a hundred of which are toxic and particularly carcinogenic. As a result, Filters are the source of the most significant plastic pollution worldwide: approximately 40% of waste collected in the Mediterranean are cigarette butts, and 30% on the coasts in the United States.

Although the tobacco industry admits that cigarette butts are one of the most common types of litter in the world, it blames consumers and refuses to pay for the damage it causes to the environment. In order to position themselves as partners in building a sustainable world while continuing to sell their deadly products, tobacco companies are trying to offer “alternatives”. Among the “solutions” proposed by the industry are biodegradable filters. These are made from abaca, flocked cotton and hemp fibres, which are likely to decompose more quickly in nature. However, this option seems to be essentially a greenwashing strategy by the tobacco industry in the face of the risks of environmental regulations for its products.

Biodegradable cigarette butts do not protect the environment

Used cigarette filters, regardless of their composition, contain extremely dangerous toxic elements: barium, lead and mercury, as well as aromatic hydrocarbons and traces of pesticides used by the tobacco industry in the cultivation phase. When decomposing, the filter releases these chemicals, which also contain heavy metals and radioactive substances such as polonium, directly into nature. Given their toxicity, there is no viable treatment and recycling solution for these products. Therefore, the only advantage that this new generation of filters could have, namely an environmental benefit, is therefore non-existent. It would even tend to worsen their environmental impact if smokers think that throwing cigarette butts will no longer have an impact on the environment due to their biodegradable nature.

Filters, including biodegradable ones, do not protect the health of smokers

Since Filters have no health justification for the smoker and are a simple marketing tool of the tobacco industry, the introduction of "biodegradable" filters by the latter could lead to a renormalization of smoking while maintaining the attractiveness of the product. The filter not only facilitates the initiation of smoking among young people, by reducing the irritating nature of smoke for the respiratory tract, but also discourages them from quitting. Finally, it blurs smokers' perception of the real dangers that smoking poses to their health.

"Biodegradable" filters could even help improve the image of smoking, by suggesting that some tobacco consumption can be environmentally friendly. This risk of renormalizing smoking is all the greater among younger generations, who are more sensitive to environmental issues. This could also be a potentially formidable new marketing argument for the tobacco industry, as was the introduction of filters or so-called "light" cigarettes several decades ago, which led to an increase in consumption.

Keywords: filters, biodegradable, environment, plastic, pollution, cigarettes, cigarette butts.

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National Committee Against Smoking |