Netherlands plans to ban cigarette filters

Following in the footsteps of Belgium and Denmark, the Netherlands is also arguing that banning cigarette filters would help to better combat pollution from single-use plastic waste.

In the Netherlands, environmental activists have rekindled the debate on cigarette filters by calling the police. They wanted to report cigarette butts being thrown on the ground in urban areas and on beaches, and asked the police to fine this behaviour as littering.

They are also campaigning to raise the amount of this offence, currently limited to €150, and want to take inspiration from their Belgian counterparts, who would like to set it at €350. Other environmental associations are calling for a ban on smoking on beaches, an approach that has spread in Spain, in Italy and in France.

Filters, a source of avoidable plastic pollution

Although it is also necessary to change behaviors regarding the abandonment of waste in the environment, eliminating cigarette filters seems the most serious way to combat the problem of this plastic pollution at the source. Cigarette filters are in fact composed of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic that can only be eliminated in about ten years. The World Health Organization estimates that cigarette butts are the second most common waste on European beaches, and the United Nations estimates that cigarette butts are the leading source of waste released into the environment.

The protective effect of filters has also not been demonstrated and has been more of a marketing argument for manufacturers. In April 2023, the Belgian Higher Health Council (CSS) thus drew attention to the misleading nature of cigarette filters, which suggest an illusion of protection to smokers.

Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark study filter ban

Beyond just sanctions against cigarette butts thrown on the ground, other measures can be considered. During the negotiations of the global treaty against plastic pollution, which took place in Paris from May 29 to June 2, 2023, 130 health and environmental organizations had called for a ban on cigarette filters. Several governments, including those of Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands, had joined this position and began to consider the technical nature of such a measure.[1]Vivianne Heijnen, who was Minister of the Environment in the previous Dutch government and still holds this position on a transitional basis, had notably declared herself in favour of the elimination of cigarette filters.

According to Karl Beerenfenger, campaign director of the Plastic Peuken collective, which organises large-scale cigarette butt collections in the Netherlands every year: "The Dutch government has recognised the problem and also knows that awareness measures against littering have little effect. Even with a 70% reduction in the number of cigarette butts in the environment, more than a billion cigarette filters still end up on the streets every year in the Netherlands alone. Banning the product [the filter], preferably in an international context, is a logical step."[2]

To learn more about removing cigarette filters, see our decryption.

Keywords: Netherlands, Belgium, filters, cigarette butts, environment, deception.

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