BACKGROUND: Cigarette filters, primarily composed of single-use plastics, are among the most prevalent sources of marine pollution and contribute significantly to environmental degradation. Filters are also implicated in a decades long fraud to mislead consumers about safer smoking while actually leading them to a more aggressive form of cancer. This study evaluates the cost of environmental damage of the cigarette filters as single use plastic.
METHODS: Public data sources, including the World Bank's waste management cost estimates and the World Wildlife Fund's marine ecosystem loss metrics, Data on cigarette consumption, filter and packaging weights, and country-specific collection efficiencies were used to calculate waste management costs and ecosystem losses.
RESULTS: It is estimated that USD 20 Billion is lost every year in terms of loss of ecosystem services due to tobacco plastics for the duration of the lifetime of the plastics. For the past 10 years alone, the loss of ecosystem value would be around USD 186 Billion, accounting for inflation. The data on costs per country will be presented in tabular pie chart formats revealing higher overall losses in the Western Pacific Region (WPRO), but higher waste management costs in high-income countries (HICs).
CONCLUSIONS: The estimate is conservative, setting the minimum cost of the environmental damage arising from the plastic nature of cigarette butts, excluding their hazardous nature (i.e., marine life dying from heavy metal and chemical toxicity alongside plastic contamination). Downstream measures, such as ecotaxes and bans on single-use plastic can be immediately taken while working on upstream measures, such as eliminating cigarette filters. These findings indicate the importance of aligning tobacco control measures with environmental policies. Country level results are available in a digital tool: How Should Tobacco Companies Pay for their Pollution in Countries, produced for STOP by GGTC with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies.