Cigarette Filters and Microplastics: The Hidden Plastic Pollution Problem

The Plastic Problem That Nobody Knows About

Many people ask this question "Are cigarette filters made of plastic?".

When someone imagines plastic pollution they usually think people are talking about grocery bags, water bottles or drinking straws; they hardly think about cigarette butts. Cigarette filters are one of the most important and most neglected causes of microplastic pollution on Earth. Trillions of cigarette butts are thrown away each year and almost all of them are made of plastic, which takes many years to break down, giving off toxic chemicals and microplastic fibre's into the soil, rivers and oceans in the process.

Are Cigarette Filters Plastic?

Most smokers think that the filters on cigarettes are made of a natural and biodegradable substance. In fact, almost all filters are composed of cellulose acetate, a plastic which is obtained from wood pulp but is then chemically treated so that it acts like synthetic plastic. There are thousands of microscopic plastic fibres in each filter, and since cellulose acetate does not break down naturally, a discarded filter may remain in the environment for many years before it completely breaks up.

Whenever it fails, it doesn't vanish but instead breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces until it becomes the type of microplastic particles that are now being detected in the oceans, in drinking water, in the soil, and even in the food we consume.

How long do cigarette filters take to break down?

The numbers behind tobacco's plastic footprint are hard to overstate:

Worldwide, about 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are left behind each year, that amount is more than 1.6 billion pounds of waste.

Cigarette butts are always ranked as the most littered item in the United States and are also among the most common plastic items recovered during global ocean cleanups.

On the beaches of California alone, the number of cigarette butts is about nine times greater than the number of discarded plastic straws.

Since filters do not break down easily, a cigarette butt that is only two years old can still be causing chemicals to seep into the surrounding soil and water if it is found on a beach.

Industry production is not showing any sign of slowing down since tobacco companies are said to produce about 6 trillion filtered cigarettes each year, ensuring that there will be a constant supply of plastic waste for many decades to come.

A History of Deception: The "Safer Cigarette" Myth

In the 1940s and 1950s, when scientific evidence showing that smoking caused serious illness was beginning to accumulate, the tobacco companies introduced filters as a means of promoting their cigarettes as “safer”. This approach was extremely successful, even though the filters achieved only a small reduction in the amount of harmful chemicals getting to smokers lungs:

In the United States 1951 approximately only 1% of the cigarettes sold had filters.

By 1958 almost half of all cigarettes were smoked through filters.

In 1993 nearly all the cigarettes available on the market had a filter.

Tobacco companies soon found that filters made the smoke taste milder and this led people to take deeper puffs, increasing their exposure to harmful substances rather than decreasing it. Some firms designed filters which changed from white to brown as they were used, giving the impression that toxins were being caught and eliminated. In fact, the color change was merely a marketing gimmick and had no real filtering effect. Filtered cigarettes have now been connected with certain, dangerous types of lung cancer.

(Sadly people know and understand how bad cigarettes are for the human body and still smoke)

The Toxic Chemistry of Cigarette Waste

Cigarette butts are not a large litter problem but also a real environmental danger; in addition to the plastic fibers themselves, the used filters contain a mixture of chemicals which have been taken in during the process of smoking, such as nicotine, heavy metals, and other toxic residues.

Research has demonstrated that chemicals washed out of one cigarette butt which has been left in water for 24 hours are strong enough to kill about half of the fish placed in them. When you take that fact and multiply it by the trillions of cigarette butts that are thrown away each year and end up in our waters, the extent of the damage to aquatic ecosystems becomes very dangerous.

Tobacco's Environmental Footprint Goes Far Beyond Filters

Plastic pollution is only one aspect of the environmental impact of tobacco; tobacco production is remarkably resource-intensive.

The growing of tobacco results in about 600 million trees being cleared each year, which leads to deforestation and the loss of habitat.

The cultivation of tobacco demands reaches to quantities of water over 22 billion tonnes around the world each year, particularly in areas that are already experiencing water scarcity.

When you add up all these effects, it becomes clear that the environmental damage caused by tobacco does not stop when a cigarette is put out, in fact, it starts in the farm field and goes on well after the butt has hit the ground.

Can cigarette microplastics affect human health?

It is not necessary to smoke in order to be affected by the microplastic pollution from tobacco. When the plastic fibres from cigarette filters break down and get into the soil, waterways, and the food chain, they can end up in the water we drink and the food we eat. Research which is not restricted to tobacco sources has associated exposure with a range of health issues, including:

Intestinal inflammation and gut damage

Fertility issues, including reduced sperm count

DNA mutations that may raise cancer risk

Microplastic particles have already been found in the blood, lungs, and other tissues of humans, which shows just how widespread this type of pollution has become.

Who Bears the Burden of Cigarette Pollution?

Tobacco pollution does not impact all communities in the same way. Studies show that tobacco litter and the toxins linked to it tend to build up more in areas of lower income and in communities of color, the same kinds of communities that have been the target of tobacco advertising. As a result, tobacco waste is not merely an environmental problem but one that is closely connected to environmental justice.

How the Industry Avoids Accountability

For many years the tobacco industry has treated cigarette butt pollution as a matter of people littering rather than a flaw in the design of their products. Instead of taking responsibility, ashtrays were installed and beach cleansings were orginized in order to place the blame on individual smokers and on local governments all while it still produces trillions of single-use plastic filters each year.

What can be done about cigarette butt pollution?

Awareness of tobacco's plastic problem is growing, and so is momentum for change:

People's efforts towards policy: people are advocating for producer responsibility, which would require tobacco companies to help pay for the cleanup and waste management of their products.

Community cleanup campaigns, including those national programs which have been running for a long time aimed at preventing litter, have reduced the amount of cigarette litter in the areas where they take place.

Correct methods of disposal: making sure cigarettes are completely extinguished and throwing the butts into containers that are safe against fire rather than putting them on the ground, this can lower the chance of fires and reduce environmental damage.

Ongoing public education: programs still show the difference between the marketing statements made by the tobacco industry and the actual environmental and health costs of its products. There are many online courses that are being promoted to people so that they can learn more about how cigarette butts and cigarettes in general harm us and our planet.

Conclusion

Cigarette filters were first offered to the public as a health advancement, but in fact they were part of a marketing move that has left the world with trillions of pieces of non-biodegradable plastic waste. It is an important step to understand this history and the extent of the tobacco industry's continued contribution to the global microplastics crisis if we are to hold the industry to account and at the same time protect public health and the environment. If we all rise against this we can change the world and save our future!