A new campaign will launch today, which aims to eradicate the most common form of plastic rubbish in the world, cigarette butts, which make up around one in five of all littered items.
Even in the UK where smoking rates have been dropping, around 3.9 million cigarette butts are thrown away every single day. Put another way that is 6,000 per constituency per day or 2.2million annually.
While according to a report published by the charity Keep Britain Tidy, cigarette butts are the Country’s most littered item, and the least binned, with only 13 per cent of butts being correctly disposed of and 87 per cent being dropped.
Currently, cigarette buts are made from cellulose acetate, a form of plastics which can take a decade to break down, doing considerable harm to the environment, wildlife and costing councils more than £40 million per year to clean up.
But the Plastic Free Butt campaign is hoping to change this, by getting an amendment to the Government’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which will force cigarette manufacturers to move to plastic free bridgeable alternatives within 12 months.
The amendment, tabled by Gosport MP, Dame Caroline Dinenage (Conservative), is being backed by a cross-party group of MPs, including Mary Glindon MP (Labour) and Dr Danny Chambers (Liberal Democrat).
Ahead of the launch, the campaign which is backed by Greenbutts LLC and this website, is publishing polling carried out by British Polling Council member Whitestone Insight, which found overwhelming support for the new law.
Asked, “Would you agree or disagree with these statements? Cigarette manufacturers should be required by law to switch from using plastics in cigarette butts to a fully biodegradable alternative”, almost nine in 10 UK adults (86 per cent) agreed, while just one in 20, 6 per cent disagreed.
Interestingly even among current smokers the vast majority (77 per cent) supported the change. Support was high across every age group, social group and region.
In contrast, asked if cigarette manufacturers should be able to continue to use plastic filters, just 13 per cent agreed. Even among smokers, this figure rose to just one in four (25 per cent).
The survey also found nearly eight in 10 (78 per cent), supporting the Government levying additional taxes on cigarette brands that refuse to switch from traditional plastic butts, including half, (51 per cent) of smokers. While more than eight in ten (84 per cent) of UK adults would support cigarette manufacturers being fined for not switching to biodegradable butts with the revenues going to pay for cleaning up the environment
Dame Caroline commented: “As someone who enjoys our local beaches and coastal walks, it’s shocking to imagine that single use plastics from the 2.2 million cigarette butts dropped in the constituency are unnecessarily polluting our waterways. I’ve tabled this amendment – it’s an environmental no-brainer and overwhelmingly popular with the public.”
Dr Danny Chambers added: “I was absolutely shocked to learn that cigarette butts account for one in five pieces of discarded plastic. When it is predicted that by 2050 there will be more tonnage of plastic in the ocean than fish, we should look at every way possible of protecting the environment and wildlife from plastic pollution.”
The amendment is expected to be debated towards the end of this month when the Tobacco and Vapes Bill returns to the House of Commons for its’ Report Stage. The Government hopes the legislation will be enacted by the end of June.
Alistair Thompson, a spokesperson for the campaign, concluded: “Around 6 trillion cigarettes are smoked every single year, with an estimated 4.5 trillion being littered. That is why cigarette butts are the most common item of plastic waste in world. Discarded butts can be found in every city, town and village, in every river, sea and ocean and unless we seize this opportunity to end the blight, this problem will get worse. So, I urge MPs from all parties to grasp this golden opportunity and become the global leader in consigning plastic cigarette butts to the history books by forcing tobacco companies to use biodegradable alternatives in the UK. Who knows, other countries, including our neighbours in Europe, might just follow suit.”
