The campaign 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 grows as more MPs and councillors back the move to force the tobacco companies to use biodegradable filters.
MPs and other elected politicians who we have spoken to have been surprised by the scale of the problem with around 4.5 trillion plastic butts being dumped around the world every year.
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 plastic cigarette filter being dropped per constituency per day.
The Plastic Free Butt campaign, which we launched last month aims to change this by forcing the tobacco companies to move to plastic free bridgeable alternatives within 12 months.
The amendment NC2, to the Tobacco and Vapes Bill is being backed by a cross-party group of MPs and is approved will mean the Government will have to bring forward regulations which force cigarette manufacturers replace the plastic they use with biodegradable alternatives.
Last month we also published polling carried out by British Polling Council member Whitestone Insight, which found overwhelming support for the new law.
The polling which was supported by this website and one of the companies who have developed a biodegradable plastic free filter, GreenButts, 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.
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
The amendment is expected to be debated next 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.
The campaign is not supported by the tobacco industry, which could have made this change already and any regulations are expected to include international biodegradability standards, such as ISO 17556 for soil and ISO 19679 for saltwater, which means the replacement butts must adhere to rigorous standards.
Update: Campaign to eradicate the most common form of plastic rubbish in the world grows
