A member of parliament has proposed taxing cigarettes to fund the fight against fires caused by cigarette butts.

Yannick Neuder, a member of parliament for the Republicans party and former Minister of Health, is preparing a bill to create a financial contribution to be borne by the tobacco industry.[1], This initiative aims to finance the prevention and suppression of fires caused by cigarette butts, as well as the cleanup of soil and water contaminated by this waste. It comes after a summer marked by several widely publicized forest fires and reignites the debate on the adequacy of existing cigarette butt management systems, starting with Alcome, the eco-organization currently responsible for this issue in France.

Yannick Neuder's proposed law

MP Yannick Neuder will introduce a bill establishing a levy of €15 per 1,000 cigarettes sold, charged directly to tobacco companies, amounting to approximately 30 cents per pack of 20 cigarettes. Based on 2025 sales figures, this levy would generate around €350 million in additional revenue annually.

Collected by customs, this contribution would exclusively fund a fire prevention and forest and aquatic environment regeneration fund, established at the Caisse des Dépôts (a public financial institution) and placed under the responsibility of the ministries in charge of civil security, forestry, and the environment, with no representation from the tobacco industry in its governance. The revenue would be used to finance fire prevention and suppression, as well as the remediation of soils and waterways affected by tobacco waste and the regeneration of burned natural environments. Eligible beneficiaries would include the National Forestry Office, the National Center for Forest Ownership, fire and rescue services, local authorities, and forest and environmental protection associations.

The MP cites a study by the National Forestry Office which indicates that nine out of ten fires are caused by humans, with 15% linked to carelessness by individuals, largely due to cigarette butts. He also points out that between 20,000 and 25,000 tons of cigarette butts are discarded each year in France, according to the Ministry of Ecology, and that this type of litter is among the most frequently found on beaches. If adopted, this tax would come into effect on January 1, 2028; failing a dedicated parliamentary slot, the MP is also considering an amendment to the 2027 budget.

A cigarette butt collection system is already in place, but it is widely criticized.

This proposal comes as a cigarette butt management system already exists in France since 2021: Alcome, an eco-organization approved by the Ministry for Ecological Transition under the extended producer responsibility scheme, is funded exclusively by the tobacco companies British American Tobacco, Philip Morris, Japan Tobacco, and Seita. This system is required to reduce the number of cigarette butts discarded in public spaces by 40 million tons and provides financial support to local authorities, amounting to €2.08 per inhabitant in densely populated urban areas, in exchange for the installation of street furniture (ashtrays, ashtrays) and awareness campaigns.

The National Committee against Smoking (CNCT)[2] However, it is worth noting that this system raises significant questions about independence, transparency, and effectiveness. Funded and structured by the tobacco companies themselves, Alcome is used, according to the CNCT (National Committee Against Tobacco), as a mechanism allowing the tobacco industry to forge direct partnerships with local authorities, without the latter always having clear visibility into its actual governance. Furthermore, Alcome's communication is considered selective: the campaigns focus on the individual behaviors of smokers without ever addressing the harmfulness of tobacco products themselves, nor incorporating any measures to reduce waste at the source.

For the CNCT (National Committee Against Tobacco), Alcome's practices amount to greenwashing, allowing the industry to improve its environmental image without questioning its core business. This constitutes a form of infiltration of public decision-makers, contrary to the spirit of Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which mandates the protection of public health policies from any interference by the tobacco industry. The CNCT therefore recommends that the financing of cigarette butt management remain the responsibility of the industry, in accordance with the polluter-pays principle, but that its governance, communication campaigns, and research activities be entrusted to a truly independent body.

It is in this context that the CNCT welcomes Yannick Neuder's proposed law, which has the advantage of making tobacco companies contribute financially without leaving them any role in the governance of the fund created, unlike the current Alcome system.

©Generation Without Tobacco

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[1] Thibaut Déléaz, A member of parliament wants to tax cigarettes to fund firefighting efforts., Le Figaro, published on August 5, 2026, accessed the same day

[2] Alcome scheme: the CNCT reiterates the need to reform cigarette butt management in France, Tobacco-Free Generation, published on August 4, 2026, accessed on August 6, 2026