The main component of cigarette filters is a plastic, cellulose acetate, and trillions of butts are discarded into the environment every year, making them the most common single item of plastic pollution. Each filter contains more than twelve thousand strands of cellulose acetate, which break down into microfibres and particles. Toxic chemicals from discarded cigarette butts, including nicotine, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals leach out, polluting rivers and seas and harming vertebrates, invertebrates, micro-organisms and plants. There is no possible mitigation strategy for plastic waste from tobacco products. Clean up programmes, a form of greenwashing for the tobacco industry, collect only a trivial proportion of the trillions of discarded butts. The material is too toxic to be reused or recycled. In any case, cigarette filters are a fraudulent product, providing no protection to people who smoke, while giving the false impression that they are doing something to reduce the risk.
