The tobacco industry behind cigarette butt collection in France

The Minister for Ecological Transition announced on July 8 the introduction of a contribution from tobacco companies to the collection of cigarette butts, as well as the creation of an eco-organization dedicated to this mission, but run by cigarette manufacturers. An application of the "polluter pays" principle that risks being significantly watered down.

Each year, it is estimated that 4,300 billion people cigarette butts thrown into nature and in cities, causing one of the largest sources of waste worldwide. An estimated two billion cigarette butts are thrown away in the city of Paris alone, or 350 tonnes per year. In Europe, the United Kingdom and the city of Brussels have already applied the "polluter pays" principle by taxing tobacco producers on the waste generated by their industry, particularly in terms of cigarette butts thrown on the ground. This principle, known as "extended producer responsibility" (EPR), is now being extended to waste from tobacco products in France.

The Minister for Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, announced on July 8 the upcoming implementation of measures intended to resolve the persistent pollution of cigarette butts, which take twelve years to degrade in the natural environment. Measures that are part of the 2020 anti-waste law and an extension of a European directive from June 2019.

Measures presented as restrictive, with quantified objectives

Among these measures, a financial contribution from tobacco manufacturers will be introduced, in order to supply one or more eco-organizations. The latter will be responsible for collecting and processing cigarette butts present in public spaces, proposing new effective collection models and organizing awareness-raising actions. A schedule for reducing the volume of cigarette butts will be imposed on them, providing that it be reduced by 20% during the first year of approval of the organization, by 35% within five years and by 40% within six years.[1]The Minister estimated that the contribution of the tobacco industry should amount to 80 million euros per year, without specifying the deadline. "Suppliers can afford it," did she consider[2]A scale of these contributions, estimated at €0.05 to €2 per inhabitant depending on the size of the municipalities, remains to be fixed.

Other missions of these eco-organizations include studies on the behavior of consumers throwing away their cigarette butts, on new collection circuits and on the recycling of cigarette butts into materials, knowing that the latter point is quite restrictive and currently very unprofitable. There are also the actions originally recommended by cigarette manufacturers: prevention campaigns encouraging people not to throw away cigarette butts and free distribution of pocket ashtrays by the tobacconist network.

Three years of negotiations with industrialists

The terms of action for this announcement had been set in February 2021 by a ministerial decree after several years of negotiations. As early as June 2018, the Secretary of State to the Minister for Ecological and Inclusive Transition, Brune Poirson, had declared her intention to reduce the presence of cigarette butts in the environment and had encountered the reluctance of tobacco manufacturers to pay a financial contribution.

Accustomed to negotiations with public authorities, the tobacco industry has deployed several countermeasures to limit the scope of the order issued in February, to try to halve the cigarette butt reduction targets and to significantly reduce the compensation rates per inhabitant.[3]. The calculation of contributions will depend, for example, on the ability of local authorities to provide quantified elements of their cigarette butt collection costs by the end of August 2021, in order to establish the cost passed on to cigarette manufacturers. Manufacturers have also strongly influenced the prevention missions entrusted to the eco-organization in charge of this regulation.

The company selected to act as an eco-organization is Alcome, created in December 2020 by tobacco manufacturers and specializing in the collection, treatment and disposal of non-hazardous waste.[4]Its president, Jérome Duffieux, also runs several other companies, including SAS Traditab, which he founded in 2007 and which operates in the wholesale trade and storage of tobacco products.[5].

This is therefore a problematic situation, where cigarette manufacturers are supposed to assess the costs of their business activity themselves, collect the resulting taxes themselves and propose measures themselves to reduce the damage they cause. There is no doubt that tobacco manufacturers will not miss this opportunity to communicate on their contribution, under the heading of social and environmental responsibility (CSR).

By entrusting all of these missions to the tobacco industry rather than to an independent body, the government is clearly violating Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which France ratified in 2004 and which provides that anti-smoking policies "are not influenced by the commercial and other interests of the tobacco industry"[6]. The implementing guidelines for this general obligation stipulate in this regard that, taking into account the irreconcilable interests of the tobacco industry and the general interest, the parties should only interact with the tobacco industry when necessary and strictly limited to what is necessary.

A system that poorly addresses the problems posed

Various avenues are being considered to reduce the burden of cigarette butts being thrown into the environment. Tobacco manufacturers explain that they are not responsible for this, thereby rejecting the very principle of extended producer responsibility. They blame the incivility of smokers, who should be educated through awareness campaigns. They readily propose distributing individual ashtrays, knowing that these encourage tobacco consumption and therefore increase the emission of cigarette butts. According to them, the idea of additional taxation could only be passed on to smokers, in the form of an increase in the price of cigarettes. Other points of view believe that smokers should be punished with heavier fines; since the fight against fly-tipping is itself a government priority, the fine for abandoning any waste – including cigarette butts – increased from €68 to €135 in 2020. In Obernai (Bas-Rhin), throwing a cigarette butt on the ground can even cost up to €1,000.

Public health associations are calling for more effective measures; this could involve reducing waste at source, for example by eliminating cellulose acetate filters, a type of plastic. Reducing chemical inputs in the cigarette manufacturing process is another way to restrict the environmental consequences of tobacco production. Taxing cigarette manufacturers has the advantage of placing the responsibility back on the industrialists, provided that the environmental cost is correctly estimated. The simplest and most economical option remains of course a significant reduction in the number of smokers, by encouraging them to stop smoking. Simply reducing the number of cigarettes smoked, for example by increasing the number of smoke-free places and spaces, is enough in itself to reduce the overall volume of cigarette butts.

All of these public health measures would significantly reduce the number of cigarette butts thrown into the environment. While waiting for the problem to move: most of the new products offered today by manufacturers are derived from electronic devices (vaping, heated/grilled tobacco) and are particularly polluting.[7].

MF

[1] Garcin-Berson W, Le Figaro, How cigarette companies will be made to contribute to the fight against cigarette butts. Published on July 8, 2021, (accessed July 9, 2021)

[2] Coumaros C, Le Figaro, Cigarette butts: Barbara Pompili presents her anti-pollution plan today. Published on July 8, 2021, (accessed July 9, 2021)

[3] Collet P, Actu-Environnement, REP cigarette butts: cigarette manufacturers are reluctant to accept their new obligations. Published on February 19, 2021, (accessed July 9, 2021)

[4] Waste Info, REP Cigarette Butts, Alcome future eco-organization candidate. Published on February 3, 2021, (accessed July 9, 2021)

[5] BFM Business/Managers, Jerome Duffieux. (Accessed July 9, 2021)

[6] WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. WHO, 2003, French version, 42 p.

[7] Tobacco Free Generation, Electronic cigarettes, an environmental disaster without a solution. Published on February 3, 2021, (accessed July 9, 2021)