Half a million cigarette butts collected in three hours: time to tackle cigarette filters

The campaign was coordinated by the Plastic Peuken Collectief, a national partnership of environmental organisations, businesses and citizens that wants a ban on plastic filters.

Cigarette butts are plastic. With the Plastic PeukMeuk campaign, the Plastic Peuken Collectief is calling for a ban on plastic filters. They also want the tobacco industry to be made responsible for preventing and cleaning up this plastic waste.

Because cigarette filters do not decompose. Almost all filters are made of cellulose acetate, a type of plastic. But hardly anyone outside of tobacco companies knows this. As a result, littered cigarette butts contribute significantly to global plastic pollution. They also lead to higher clean-up costs for municipalities. They blight the living environment.

“In the national debate on plastic pollution, cigarette butts are hardly mentioned, even though a full rubbish truck of plastic butts ends up on the streets in the Netherlands every single day,” says campaign leader Karl Beerenfenger.

“Clean-up operations alone do not solve the problem. We must tackle the product itself. We want to get rid of the plastic cigarette filter. These filters are not good for the environment.” Filters have proven toxic to fish and the growth of certain grasses is also hampered when cigarette butts are mixed in. “We are therefore asking the government to ban cigarette filters containing plastic, and to actively advocate for this in a European context. The first step is a study into the possibilities of introducing a ban,” says Beerenfenger.

Article 8 of the European Single Use Plastics Directive (SUPD) provides that tobacco manufacturers must at least pay the clean-up costs for cigarette butts with plastic filters.

Rob Buurman, director of environmental organisation Recycling Netwerk Benelux, says: “We call on the Dutch government to closely monitor the number of littered cigarette butts and to set realistic clean-up costs per butt. In this way, the government can motivate tobacco manufacturers to prevent cigarette butts from ending up in the environment. As a stick behind the door, we propose that a legal target of -70% cigarette butts in the environment by the end of 2023 be included.”

Constance Steenkamp from Amsterdam Plastic Smart City highlights the scale of the problem: “For the Municipality of Amsterdam, it is currently difficult to pay separate attention to cleaning up cigarette butts due to the high costs involved.”

Cigarette filter pollution is also a problem on the North Sea beach. Ewout van Galen from Stichting De Noordzee: “The beach is not an ashtray, but cigarette filters have been the most common type of waste found on tourist beaches for years. Animals can mistake the filters for food. A single cigarette filter can pollute up to 8 litres of water. That is why cigarette filter pollution and tackling it are at the heart of our annual Boskalis Beach Cleanup Tour this summer, during which we will clean up the entire North Sea coast with thousands of volunteers from 1 to 15 August.”

Participants logged the collected cigarette butts via the Litterati app. Just like in 2020, GoClean is drawing up a report, which is expected at the end of July.

Since 2019, the following organisations have joined forces in the Plastic Peuken Collectief to tackle littered cigarette butts: The Ocean Movement (formerly: By the Ocean we Unite), Seavents, Sea Going Green, Save Your Butt, Recycling Netwerk Benelux, Ecomondo, Peukenmeisje, The Bamboo Brush Society, Smyle, Plastic Soup Surfer and Straw by Straw. In 2019 and 2020, people also took to the streets and collected 51,000 and 142,000 cigarette butts respectively.

Contact for interviews: Karl Beerenfenger | Campaign Leader & Project Leader We Are Nature | +31 6 18 632 023

Photo credits: Jerry de Mars

In the media:

Trouw, Cleaners pick half a million cigarette butts off the street, 12 July 2021

BNNVara, Half a million toxic cigarette butts collected, tackle this product! Vroege Vogels, 12 July 2021

Nature Today, Action against plastic cigarette butts in nature, 12 July 2021

Online:

Website: www.plasticpeukencollectief.nl

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PlasticPeukenCollectief

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plastic_peuken_collectief/