Greg Vogt, ISWA Managing Director, looks at the cigarette butts littering our path
Sometimes having data or statistics wins the day. Last week I did a simple survey, where I tallied up all the visible, discarded cigarette ends I saw on my 1 km walk to work. Municipal crews (mostly manual sweepers, plus mobile vacuum trucks) cover the same area daily, and therefore it is no surprise that "fresh" butts made up the bulk of my total. Admittedly, my scientific method does not appear in much of the well-known technical literature, but an average of more than 2000 butts observed a day seems to drive the point home.
Our industry spends a fair amount of energy and resources tackling this small component waste. Examples include numerous waste composition studies to examine the presence and extent of discarded acetate filters, design and placement of special receptacles, disposal bans, large-scale awareness and litter clean-up campaigns, and targeted collection systems and approaches. Similar steps and efforts have been long established by the water and health industries as well.
Clearly, once the cigarette butts are dispersed into the environment the cost of collection and disposal rises in significance. It is estimated an average cigarette smoker only generates 5 litres of discarded butts annually, causing very little tip fee.
Absence of biodegradation poses the bulk of the problem. The other part is the individual"s choice of disposal method. With annual global production exceeding 5.5 trillion butts, our industry manages at least a third of this waste, either by design or within other quantities of solid waste. Total weight and volume estimates resemble the size of an average small landfill - i.e., nearly 1 million tonnes, or about 2.8 million m3 disposed annually - but this calculation hardly captures the waste management challenges presented by a 0.17 gram piece of cellulose fluff.
Tobacco pack warning messages are visible to smokers and non-smokers alike. More than 50 countries have made these messages mandatory, using (bad) health as an educational theme. Studies indicate the labels are read by more than 77% of the buyers/smokers surveyed, and they are understood by more than 90% of those in the survey. One wonders if an environmental/waste management themed campaign is worth a try to see if it would yield comparable or better results.
Other solutions are being implemented. Smoking bans, including those for commercial facilities, office buildings and restaurants appear to change behaviour, and at once provide improved opportunities for localized, specialized collection. Personal disposable butt holders, similar to providing free "doggy" bags, are another encouraging approach. Many favour further consumption-based taxes to finance clean-up equipment and related campaigns. Others look to an increase in litter receptacles and improved enforcement of litter laws. The search continues for a biodegradable filter with a proper taste.
For those of you wondering, cigars and cigar "tips" appear mostly unnoticed in similar litter surveys. My sidewalk data showed few tips, and worldwide production of premium cigars is low (less than 0.1% relative to cigarettes). "Just a big cigarette", my marathon-running and committed cigarette-smoking former boss used to say when offered a cigar. Perhaps not so true in the world of waste management.
Greg Vogt is managing director of ISWA and ISWA Editor of Waste Management World
e-mail:gvogt@iswa.org
(Greg would like to thank several sources, including World Health Organization, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Ocean Conservancy and Tom Conrad, P.E.).
