Too many butts

Cigarettes are among the most littered items worldwide with an estimated 4.5 trillion cigarette filters entering the environment every year. Cigarettes also make up around two thirds of all litter found in England across 80% of surveyed sites. Despite the prevalence of cigarettes discarded in the environment, filters have rarely been tackled as a source of plastic in efforts to reduce this environmental waste.

So why should we be concerned about cigarette filters?

Cigarette filters are usually made of a type of plastic called cellulose acetate. Each filter contains between 12,000 -15,000 strands of this material which can break off and enter the environment as microfibres. While these are too small for humans to see, these fibres can potentially make up a substantial part of global microplastic pollution, spreading through ecosystems and entering the food chain, posing a threat to both wildlife and human health.

Cigarette butts primarily end up in aquatic environments and water sources contaminating rivers, lakes, and oceans. Further, recent research has demonstrated that plastic microfibers released from degrading cigarette filters in the environment potentially make up a very high and almost entirely overlooked proportion of microplastics in deep-sea sediment.

In animal studies conducted in these environments it has been demonstrated that both plastic fibres and toxic chemicals from cigarette butts can be absorbed by marine life.  This means these waste products are potentially contaminating human food sources and being bioaccumulated.

Prior studies have indicated the various harmful effects that microplastics can have on the human body. This highlights the urgent need to recognise cigarette filters as a source of plastic pollution, and scientists and public health experts in the UK and EU have recently advocated for regulatory action, including a potential ban.

Watch out for the follow up article which will explore common myths around cigarette filters, current campaigns to ban the filters, the UK’s current failure to do so in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, and details of No Butts Day – Saturday July 4th, 2026 – when people around the world will join forces for the biggest cigarette filter action on the planet.

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For more information contact: info@scarabtrust.org.uk

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handful of butts - Image by Annemarieke Celine - No Butts Day (ST ref 13290)