World No Tobacco Day draws attention to the environmental consequences of tobacco

Air, water, forests, waste, CO2: the environmental consequences of tobacco production and consumption are phenomenal and rarely discussed. World No Tobacco Day is an opportunity to take stock of these little-known aspects of the tobacco industry.

World No Tobacco Day is an annual opportunity to organize awareness-raising and smoking cessation activities. This year, the day is dedicated to the environment, to remind people of the many consequences of the tobacco market on the environment.

An industry that is greedy for natural resources

Tobacco production requires significant natural resources. A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that this production consumes 22 million tons of water, 200,000 hectares of arable land and 600 million trees to manufacture the 6,000 billion cigarettes smoked annually.[1]. This production alone results in the emission of 84 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, or 20% of air traffic emissions. Added to this are the emissions from the combustion of the cigarettes themselves, releasing into the atmosphere the 7,000 chemical compounds contained in tobacco smoke, 70 of which are recognised as carcinogenic.

The land grabbing of water and land resources is particularly damaging in low- and middle-income countries, where tobacco plantations are mainly located. It takes 3.7 litres of water to make a single cigarette, and 678 litres of water to produce one kilogram of tobacco. Tobacco cultivation is also responsible for 5% of global deforestation. It also causes “green tobacco disease”, due to the massive absorption of nicotine, which particularly affects children and women among the workers mobilized for this crop. These workers are also heavily exposed to fertilizers and pesticides, which are widely used in tobacco cultivation, which is the sixth most chemically consuming crop.

A significant production of waste

The tobacco industry is also a major producer of waste. The cigarette filter, which is ineffective in protecting the health of smokers, is made of plastic (cellulose acetate). This filter can therefore be considered a single-use plastic, which should logically call for its disappearance. It is estimated that around 4,500 billion cigarette butts are thrown on the ground each year before ending up in the oceans, making it the second largest type of plastic pollution in the world (40 %).

In addition to these butts, there is waste from cigarette packaging or generated by products other than cigarettes. Electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco devices generate plastic and metal waste, as well as used batteries, which are significantly more polluting and persistent than conventional cigarettes, which are already very polluting. Disposable electronic cigarettes are the highest source of pollution here, since they are single-use products containing a battery and chemicals, and are often thrown away with regular waste. Other non-smoked tobacco products are not left out: in India, a study conducted in the state of Tamil Nadu calculated that of the 8,238 tonnes of annual tobacco waste, nearly 44% of the waste was attributable to chewing tobacco, which is very common in this region.[2].

Circumventing the “polluter pays” principle

Cleaning up these cigarette butts and litter has a financial cost, in addition to the various ecological costs. According to the WHO, it is estimated at 234 million US dollars in Germany, and 2.6 billion US dollars in China.[3]. The application of the "polluter pays" principle would imply that it is the manufacturers who contribute financially to treating the waste they generate; in the tobacco sector, these manufacturers are instead trying to offload this task by entrusting it to states and smokers.

Although France, along with Spain, is praised by the WHO for its efforts to treat tobacco waste, the French situation is problematic in this area. Transposing the European directive on single-use plastics, France entrusted, in August 2021, the management of cigarette butt collection to Alcome, an eco-organization founded, financed and managed by the tobacco industry. However, the management of this eco-organization should, in order to comply with Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), be completely independent of the tobacco industry and simply funded by a specific tax set up on waste produced by the industry.[4]Conversely, the actions proposed by Alcome, whether it be the distribution of pocket ashtrays or the installation of ashtrays in public spaces, aim rather to renormalize tobacco use and encourage consumption.

CSR, a pretext for communication

This transgression of Article 5.3 of the FCTC, which stipulates that public policies must be free from the influence of the tobacco industry, is a sign of the intrusion of industrialists into the development of public policies, with a view to perpetuating the use of tobacco and instituting that of new tobacco and nicotine products. In order to demonstrate their "goodwill" and their "civic commitment", the tobacco majors have invested heavily, since the early 2000s, in the field of social and environmental activities, under the cover of corporate social responsibility (CSR). These activities, often more demonstrative than effective, do not in any way compensate for the environmental damage inflicted by the tobacco industry and on which it wishes to dwell little. On the contrary, it prefers to use these CSR activities as communication and promotion media for its new products. However, in countries that are signatories to the FCTC, and even more so in those where tobacco advertising is explicitly prohibited, the promotion of tobacco products is not permitted in principle, which should invalidate most CSR operations. The FCTC also contains, in its Article 17, a section in which it is expressly requested to facilitate the reconversion to other crops of land allocated to tobacco production, and in its Article 18, to pay particular attention to environmental issues in the cultivation and production of tobacco products.

Addressing the environmental damage caused by tobacco can be done in ways other than the industry options. Removing filters from cigarettes would be one way to reduce this damage. Reducing the number of smokers and achieving a Tobacco-Free Generation would be another, simpler and more effective way to address the multiple costs and consequences of tobacco.

Keywords: JMST, World No Tobacco Day, environment, waste, cigarette butts, CSR, Alcome

©Generation Without Tobacco

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[1] Tobacco: poisoning our planet, WHO, published May 29, 2022, accessed May 31, 2022.

[2] Express News Service, Tobacco leaves more than 8,000 tonne waste trail in Tamil Nadu: Study, The New Indian Express, Published May 30, 2022, Accessed May 31, 2022.

[3] WHO sounds alarm over tobacco industry's impact on environment, WHO, published May 31, 2022, accessed May 31, 2022.

[4] Alcome: why the eco-organization for the fight against cigarette butts is problematic, Tobacco-Free Generation, published March 17, 2022, accessed May 31, 2022.