Bridge to the future

Two governors joined forces Monday to say it is time to talk about a new bridge across the Columbia River. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and her counterpart across the river Washington Gov. Jay Inslee appeared together in Vancouver to say the time has come to replace the interstate bridge. A proposal to do so failed in 2014, but the duo said a new span that accommodates high-speed rail and is earthquake-ready needs to be built. “This joint effort to replace the interstate bridge is critical to the safety and economies of both Oregon and Washington," Brown said, according to the Oregonian's report on the meeting.

“This is to get people to see the trash,” she said, her fingers slick with grease. “We don’t want to be the invisible janitors.” With her distinctive appliqués, that was unlikely.   It was the last day of the Joshua Tree Music Festival, a family-friendly event of didgeridoo sound baths, yoga, crafts, electronica and other familiar fare held at a dusty desert campground for three days in October. Ms. Nielsen, a 25-year-old artist whose medium is trash, was one of 20-odd Trash Pirates working the event.   The Pirates are a loose collective of waste management specialists, to borrow a phrase from Tony Soprano, who make sure events are as sustainable as possible through recycling and composting. They also educate attendees about how to do both properly.   Garbage has long been the uncomfortable fallout of the festival world, and as these gatherings multiply like glow sticks at a Phish concert, stretching the season into a year-round party (hola, Costa Rica), its impact has roused young artists and activists like Ms. Nielsen.   Most Pirates start out as volunteers, helping with trash or performing other tasks so as to attend for free. Then they have their “trash moment,” as the Pirates put it, the epiphany that turns volunteer work into a career, and trash into a calling.   “Your first experience of the mass of it, whether it’s loading dumpsters onto a trailer or driving out to the event grounds when everyone is gone and it’s a sea of trash, is an existential crisis,” Ms. Nielsen said. “You are baptized into compost.”   “You’re either in or you’re out,” she added, echoing the rallying cry of a long-ago counterculture movement that involved a bus, “and it becomes a way of life.”   The events themselves — both community-minded and escapist — are morphing into trash camps: days-long immersions into the politics of waste, with lectures and workshops on developing your garbage-handling skills along with your yoga practice.   Some trash stats are in order. In 2017, according to an environmental impact report, Coachella, in Indio, Calif., was generating over 100 tons of trash each day. Many events are now committed to becoming zero-waste endeavors, or as close to it as possible. High “diversion” rates (the percentage of waste not sent to the landfill) are badges of honor. Last spring, the Trash Pirates brought the Joshua Tree Music Festival’s rate up to 77 percent.   In 2017, Coachella’s diversion rate was just 20 percent, apparently because attendees weren’t using the recycling bins. Veterans of Burning Man and other festivals learn acronyms like MOOP, for “Matter Out of Place,” an umbrella term for trash and anything else that doesn’t occur naturally on a site; cigarette butts, broken tents and human waste are some common examples.   Burning Man has a “Leave No Trace” ethos, but the messy camps of bad Burners are called out each year on the festival’s MOOP Map in the hope that public shaming will be a deterrent next time around.  

‘Shepherds of the “Away’’’

  While there are many waste organizations dedicated to mitigating the environmental impact of such gatherings, the Trash Pirates are distinguished by their zeal and their punk aplomb.       Take Moon Mandel, 24, a filmmaker and Trash Pirate who was managing the operations that weekend at Joshua Tree. Mx. Mandel is nonbinary, and with their bright orange jumpsuit emblazoned with patches stitched with trash graphics (the recycling whorl and other insignia) they looked like an indie Eagle Scout.   As Oscar the Grouch sang his gruff-voiced hymn “I Love Trash,” one of many trash-friendly songs on the Pirates’ playlist, Mx. Mandel said: “It’s very important for people to see the work we do and understand the human scope of it. We are trying to alter the cultural norms of a throwaway society. We teach them that there’s no ‘away.’ We are the shepherds of the ‘away’ and it's being buried inside the earth forever.”   And so Mx. Mandel performed trash collections, dancing with colleagues as Oscar warbled under a festive tent with gaily painted bins, and sorting garbage (earning $5 a bag) for those campers too busy or negligent to do it themselves.   To attendees who had dutifully separated their food scraps and recyclables and were tipping them into the appropriate bins, Mx. Mandel called out a hearty, “Yarg!” their preferred Pirate cheer.   “Thank you for composting!” Mx. Mandel praised a young woman scraping scrambled eggs out of a frying pan, and then recited some recycling basics: “You can’t compost paper with too much printing on it, or recycle greasy paper. Single-use bags can be taken to supermarkets in California for recycling, so we are collecting them. Make sure everything is clean. You don’t need to rinse your soda or beer cans. But if your stuff is covered in yogurt, it’s not going to be recycled.”   Mx. Mandel has a policy about not working festivals where organizers are charging for water. “The decommodification of water is one of my core beliefs,” they said.       Mx. Mandel was particularly proud of their cigarette-butt program. For the last two years, they have been collecting butts (200,000 and counting, they said) at festivals and sending them to TerraCycle, a company that teams with manufacturers and retailers to recycle or upcycle all manner of products and materials, including action-figure toys, backpacks and toothbrushes. Cigarette butts are turned into plastic pallets; the tobacco is composted.   Sarah Renner, the operations and site manager for the Joshua Tree Music Festival, wrote in an email that the Trash Pirates are “the down and dirty, real as can be, heroes of the event world.”   The Pirates have handled her festival’s waste for the last four years, sweeping, handing out bags and painting barrels with children. “They don’t just pull trash bags and sort recycling,” she said. “They are on a mission to change the way people think while getting everything to where it needs to go.””   The work is brutal. Heat stroke, sunburn, cuts and bruises are common hazards, as is a dousing with trash juice: the pungent slurry that pours from a trash can and into your armpits when you’re hoisting it over your head.   Close-toed boots are encouraged, but don’t always protect. Mx. Mandel’s foot was sliced open, they said, this past February at a festival in Costa Rica by a severed iguana hand that pierced their boot, but most dangers are what you’d think: nails, screws, shards of glass.   Tools of the trade include MOOP sticks, which are long claws for grabbing trash without having to bend over. These are light and rather delicate, with a nice action, and are precise enough to pick up a grain of rice.   Hand sanitizer and liquid soap are requirements; one Pirate, Moose Martinez, had a Purell bottle clipped to the strap of his over-the-shoulder water bag. Work gloves and thin blue food service gloves are part of the uniform, but many of the Pirates were working in their bare hands.   “We call that raw-dogging,” said Luke Dunn, 33, a musician and preschool teacher, as a colleague with clean hands fed him a chocolate-chip cookie. “You try not to touch your face, you wash a lot.”   On the Pirates’ Facebook page, “Trash Pirates and Waste Naughts,” with over 4,000 followers, they share job tips (a recent post was for waste management at McMurdo Station in Antarctica); inspiration (“It’s Called Garbage Can, Not Garbage Cannot”); and education (news clips on California’s recycling woes and posts reviewing the best trash bags or instructions on how to make compostable confetti out of leaves with a hole puncher).   One long thread discussed cleaning up glitter, a particular scourge of Gay Pride parades.    

‘The Lost Boys’

  The Trash Pirates formed six years ago when two friends, Caleb Robertson, now 26, and Kirk Kunihiro, 29, then living in the San Francisco Bay Area, wanted to go to festivals for free.   While volunteering for the green teams, as they are called, of these gatherings, Mr. Robertson said, "We came to realize that there was a way to express our zero-waste passions within the event industry.”   They learned their craft at Green Mary, a two-decades-old company dedicated to making events sustainable that was founded by Mary Munat, an environmental activist and former Army reservist.   “They are fast, hard-working, green-hearted people,” she said of the Pirates. “I love their energy and greenness, and I am so glad my age-old eco-passions gave birth to so many little green pirates.”   The Trash Pirates was a nickname they gave each other early on, when festivals were more haphazard, and it stuck. In the beginning, Mr. Robertson, said “It was more seat-of-the-pants. Many of us were living out of our vehicles. That’s the thing: Trash can attract people who don’t feel like they have a place to go, giving people purpose in a space where they had none. Kind of like the Lost Boys. People are interested in the party, but it becomes empty if you don’t have a purpose.”   Next year, they hope to work upward of 30 events. “The work isn’t going to stop, I’m almost scared of it,” Mr. Robertson said, adding that he and many of his colleagues are looking to expand beyond the festivals and tackle community projects in Los Angeles, where he now lives, and beyond.   Mx. Mandel is devoted to filmmaking; Ms. Nielsen to art and activism. “But we are all still united by trash,” Mr. Robertson said. “We recognize that festivals are a stage and a platform to reach people, but we also know that it’s just a Band-Aid and the best thing we can do is to concentrate on government policies and community work.” Mr. Kunihiro, who also lives in Los Angeles, started his own waste-consulting business, which includes a waste sampling service that analyzes the composition of waste streams — work that makes festival trash seem as clean and fresh, he said, as birthday cake.   He has led tours for fourth graders of recycling plants in the Bay Area; at Joshua Tree, his water bottle was a tiny blue toy recycling bin, a gift from his mother.   Another Pirate, Stephen Chun, talked about the awkward moment when he is asked what he does for a living. “A lot of people are like, ‘Huh, that’s nice. Good for you,” he said. “The feedback over time goes from being, ‘Oh, you’re the trash guy’ to, ‘Oh, you’re a hero.’ Now I say I’m a zero-waste events consultant.”   Ms. Munat said, “People see us going through the recycling and offer us their sandwiches. And we’re like, ‘No, it’s O.K., we’re getting paid.’”   Because trash is ascendant as a problem and a paradigm, it continues to grow as a métier. “In 1995, when I first starting teaching about waste, it was a boutique subject and not considered appropriate for academic study,” said Robin Nagle, a professor of anthropology and environmental studies at New York University who specializes joyfully in garbage.   She has been anthropologist-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation for more than a decade; her book “Picking Up: On the Streets and Behind the Trucks With the Sanitation Workers of New York City” was published in 2013. Professor Nagle is a founder of what’s known as discard studies, a new interdisciplinary field of research examining waste politically, culturally and economically.       “You can take any piece of trash as an object in the world and track it from its raw materials though its journey into the marketplace as a commodity,” she said. “At any of those points it will connect not just to the proliferation of garbage as a form of pollution but a host of any other environmental crises including the big megillah that is climate change.”   Of the Trash Pirates she said, “They are pushing boundaries in wonderful ways. I would be curious to see what they’re doing in 20 years. Do they bounce from this ebullient, youthful thing to something more settled? And will the planet be even closer to the brink of destruction?”   We shall see, but in the meantime, as is their practice, the Pirates swept the Joshua Tree Music Festival campgrounds clean by forming a MOOP line, as it’s known, with each Pirate three to four feet apart and armed with a MOOP stick and a bucket, and moving from the perimeter to the center.   Mx. Mandel said, “Like one amoeba we slowly devour the MOOP.”   Penelope Green is a feature writer in the Style department. She has been a reporter for the Home section, editor of Styles of The Times, an early iteration of Style, and a story editor at The New York Times Magazine. She lives in Manhattan.  

The Owen Sound Waste Watchers' goal is to raise awareness of the impact of single-use waste on Owen Sound, local waterways and our world. The community group also encourages a reduction in overall garbage and works to increase effectiveness of recycling in our community.

 

Since April 20, 2019, 45 concerned citizens have organized and participated in six trash pick-up events and individually collected 108,717 pieces of litter, including 98,319 cigarette butts (the filters are plastic filaments)  and associated waste, 3,387 food-related items including plastic wrappers, straws and utensils and many thousands of glass, metal and foam pieces washed ashore along the east and west harbours.

 

All cigarette waste collected has been recycled through the Terracycle Inc. program. Of non-cigarette waste (10,381 items), only 2% were recyclable, with 10,186 items entering landfill.

 

Owen Sound Waste Watchers have also distributed Butt Cans throughout the downtown area, with several people currently participating in the Adopt-A-Butt Can program. The group has also participated with the City of Owen Sound staff in the downtown cigarette waste recycling program by donating one receptacle for installation and providing placement advice, and is currently assisting with the recycling process.

 

Local event support has also been a focus with participants attending and assisting with green activities in the 2019 Summerfolk, Salmon Spectacular and Words Aloud festivals.

 

On November 12, 2019 the Operations Committee of the City of Owen Sound recommended a delay on banning single-use plastic until the federal government plan of action is launched in 2021 at the earliest.

 

“Tonight’s decision is a disappointment. Our 2019 collection activities have clearly shown that our local community is already experiencing the impact of toxic, single-use disposable product litter. We believe now is the perfect time for our local government to show leadership by creating concrete plans to address this issue” says Laura Wood, part of the Owen Sound Waste Watchers Planning Committee. 

 

In addition to collection and community social activities, the Owen Sound Waste Watchers Facebook page has already attracted over 250 followers, and distributes regular information about how to reduce waste by moving towards a zero-waste lifestyle.

 

“We believe that individuals can drive the most change by the decisions they make each and every day” says Lori-Ann Caswell, another member of the Owen Sound Waste Watchers Planning Committee. “After all, consumers purchase and dispose of thousands of products each year. With a few simple changes, people can greatly reduce the amount of harmful waste that needs to be disposed of through our local recycling and garbage systems.”

 

Anyone interested in learning more about lifestyle changes, interested in participating in the Adopt-A-Butt Can project or other future OSWW activities are encouraged to visit the Owen Sound Waste Watchers Facebook

page or email oswastewatchers@gmail.com.

The Owen Sound Waste Watchers' goal is to raise awareness of the impact of single-use waste on Owen Sound, local waterways and our world. The community group also encourages a reduction in overall garbage and works to increase effectiveness of recycling in our community.

 

Since April 20, 2019, 45 concerned citizens have organized and participated in six trash pick-up events and individually collected 108,717 pieces of litter, including 98,319 cigarette butts (the filters are plastic filaments)  and associated waste, 3,387 food-related items including plastic wrappers, straws and utensils and many thousands of glass, metal and foam pieces washed ashore along the east and west harbours.

 

All cigarette waste collected has been recycled through the Terracycle Inc. program. Of non-cigarette waste (10,381 items), only 2% were recyclable, with 10,186 items entering landfill.

 

Owen Sound Waste Watchers have also distributed Butt Cans throughout the downtown area, with several people currently participating in the Adopt-A-Butt Can program. The group has also participated with the City of Owen Sound staff in the downtown cigarette waste recycling program by donating one receptacle for installation and providing placement advice, and is currently assisting with the recycling process.

 

Local event support has also been a focus with participants attending and assisting with green activities in the 2019 Summerfolk, Salmon Spectacular and Words Aloud festivals.

 

On November 12, 2019 the Operations Committee of the City of Owen Sound recommended a delay on banning single-use plastic until the federal government plan of action is launched in 2021 at the earliest.

 

“Tonight’s decision is a disappointment. Our 2019 collection activities have clearly shown that our local community is already experiencing the impact of toxic, single-use disposable product litter. We believe now is the perfect time for our local government to show leadership by creating concrete plans to address this issue” says Laura Wood, part of the Owen Sound Waste Watchers Planning Committee. 

 

In addition to collection and community social activities, the Owen Sound Waste Watchers Facebook page has already attracted over 250 followers, and distributes regular information about how to reduce waste by moving towards a zero-waste lifestyle.

 

“We believe that individuals can drive the most change by the decisions they make each and every day” says Lori-Ann Caswell, another member of the Owen Sound Waste Watchers Planning Committee. “After all, consumers purchase and dispose of thousands of products each year. With a few simple changes, people can greatly reduce the amount of harmful waste that needs to be disposed of through our local recycling and garbage systems.”

 

Anyone interested in learning more about lifestyle changes, interested in participating in the Adopt-A-Butt Can project or other future OSWW activities are encouraged to visit the Owen Sound Waste Watchers Facebook

page or email oswastewatchers@gmail.com.

 

Sue Kauffman

North American Public Relations Manager

TerraCycle, Inc.

Office: (609) 393-4252 x 3708

Cell: (908) 528-3937

www.terracycle.com

www.ownterracycle.com

 

OUTSMART WASTE®

 

Eliminate the Idea of Waste®

 

Please consider the planet before printing

 

1 TerraCycle Way

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The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is recognizing 10 recycling programs from a mix of businesses, schools, nonprofits and local governments with the 2019 Wisconsin Recycling Excellence Awards. In honor of America Recycles Day on Nov. 15, the DNR is recognizing four entities for “overall operations of a recycling program,” four entities for “special projects and initiatives” and two entities for program “innovation.” “It is exciting to see communities and businesses find new ways to reduce waste and recycle,” DNR Waste and Materials Management Program Director Joe Van Rossum said. “We want to promote these efforts and share how we divert materials from landfills in Wisconsin.” The Overall Program Awards recognize efforts that are robust and continually improving while demonstrating a commitment to improving the overall recycling or diversion program.

• 7 Rivers Recycling in Onalaska developed methods to enable the recycling of old mattresses. 7RR deconstructs the mattresses primarily for the steel, foam and wood. The company smelts the steel for other steel products, makes the foam into carpet backings and grinds the wood into wood mulch for a variety of uses. The company estimates they will recycle more than 12,000 mattresses this year.
• The Purdy Elementary School Green Team in Fort Atkinson is made up of teachers and students in fourth and fifth grades. They are working hard to reduce waste from their school destined for the landfill. While caring for nearby Brietzke Educational Wetland, they recycle trash and compost organic materials. They are also working on ending the single-use plastic problem, recycling milk cartons and many other classroom initiatives.
• The city of New Richmond went through a comprehensive update of its residential recycling services, which the city had not revisited since 1996. In 2018, the city began roundtable discussions with recycling contractors and utilized an online and paper survey to solicit input from the community. The analysis led to a conversion to automated single-stream recycling. The city also works with TerraCycle to recycle cigarette filters in its downtown district.
• University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point has a long history of waste reduction, recycling and sustainability. UWSP was the first UW campus to have recycling chutes in all residential buildings and offer composting in every academic building on campus. The school also vermicomposts--using worms to digest food waste and produce nutrient-rich castings, which are spread as a soil supplement on campus gardens. Other waste diversion initiatives include a student-run food pantry, elimination of plastic straws and the University Surplus reuse program.

Projects and Initiatives Awards recognize specific projects that increase materials recycled or diverted through a particular action or project.

• Aldo Leopold Elementary School in Madison created and maintains a waste reduction and recycling program in their cafeteria that focuses on easy waste reduction techniques to divert waste and promote sustainability. By merely educating students on how and why to recycle milk cartons and sort and stack the food trays, lunch waste volume has been reduced by about 75%.
• Alliant Energy developed a waste management and recycling program for its construction of the West Riverside Energy Center (WREC) near Beloit. The program manages tons of materials generated during construction at the 90-acre project site and includes an active training component and collaboration with local organizations. As of July 2019, their data shows that 87% of waste generated from the WREC project site has been diverted from the landfill.
• Digital Bridge, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit, collects and refurbishes business computers and redistributes the devices to low-income individuals and nonprofits. The company has redistributed over 1,000 computers. Digital Bridge is providing access to affordable technology as well as setting up computer labs for communities that need them.
• Edgar School District science teachers from the middle and high schools created a step-by-step plan to enhance their recycling program. Working with administration and maintenance, the number and sizes of recycling bins were evaluated and increased. Staff also focused on better placement of the recycling containers for easier access and proper use. The district put training in place and adopted a goal of an effective district-wide program that “reduces, reuses and recycles while minimizing the footprint our community leaves.”

FROM SOLO CUPS TO SWING SETS, THESE ARE ALL RECYCLABLE ITEMS. When most people think about recycling, they picture empty cardboard boxes and plastic water bottles. But there are so many other old items hanging around your house that you can also recycle. Many companies will even pay you to bring these recyclable items in, simply because they are hard to come by and, well, there is no Planet B. Keep reading to learn about some of the surprising things that are actually recyclable and next time, think twice before you simply toss something in the trash.        

FROM SOLO CUPS TO SWING SETS, THESE ARE ALL RECYCLABLE ITEMS. When most people think about recycling, they picture empty cardboard boxes and plastic water bottles. But there are so many other old items hanging around your house that you can also recycle. Many companies will even pay you to bring these recyclable items in, simply because they are hard to come by and, well, there is no Planet B. Keep reading to learn about some of the surprising things that are actually recyclable and next time, think twice before you simply toss something in the trash.  

Volunteers from the group Sherbrooke en transition (SET) headed to the CHUS Fleurimont yesterday as part of the initiative, Operaation Zero Butts.  

Cigarettes are the world’s most littered item and pollute the oceans with toxic microplastic. Philip Morris International, the world’s biggest tobacco firm, says even with biodegradable filters, butt-flicking is not okay. Though few people would ever say this publicly, it could be argued that, by killing 7 million people a year, tobacco companies are doing the world a favour by keeping human population growth in check.   But tobacco does more harm—or good, if you’re a hardened misanthrope with a disregard for human suffering—than merely killing people.   Smoking pollutes the air with all manner of toxins, farmers fells millions of trees to grow tobacco, dropped cigarettes start forest fires, and tobacco companies emit millions of tonnes of carbon in the curing process, guzzle millions of gallons of fresh water to process their products, and use child labour.   As if that wasn’t a big enough environmental and societal footprint, tobacco companies are now adding to the world’s electronic waste crisis by pivoting towards “heat-not-burn” products like e-cigarettes that are supposedly less likely to kill their users than lighting up a Marlboro.     But an often overlooked impact of the tobacco industry is that, of the 5.6 trillion cigarettes manufactured and smoked by 1.1 billion people annually, two-thirds of their butts are dropped irresponsibly, ultimately ending up in the sea.   Cigarette butts, which are made of non-biodegradable plastic fibres, are the most common form of marine litter, and have been reigning ocean pollution champions for more than three decades, according to beach clean up data from Ocean Conservancy, a non-governmental organisation. They are, by far, the most littered item on the planet.   Yet it is the makers of plastic bags, drink bottles and drinking straws that shoulder most of the blame for the plight of the oceans.   And while a cigarette butt is less likely to choke a turtle or starve a whale than a plastic bag, there have been calls from activists in the United States to ban cigarette filters because of the environmental damage they cause.   Researchers have found remnants of cigarette butts, which contain synthetic fibres and a smorgasboard of toxic chemicals used to treat cigarettes, in the guts of 70 per cent of seabirds and 30 per cent of sea turtles.   Cigarette butts take anywhere between 18 months to 10 years to break down in the environment, depending on the conditions, and 12 billion butts are discarded around the world every day.   Marija Sommer, spokesperson for New York-headquarted Philip Morris International, said to tackle the problem requires the three e’s—empowerment, by providing smokers with places to responsibly dispose of cigarette butts; education, making people aware of the damaging consequences of butt-flicking; and enforcement, fines and other ways of punishing litterers. She added that the role of tobacco companies in contributing to the final ‘e’ was obviously limited.   Philip Morris deployed 3,300 staff to pick up cigarette butts in parks, streets and beaches for World Cleanup Day. Image: PMI   Sommer said that Philip Morris, the world’s largest  tobacco firm that makes about US$30 billion a year from selling cigarette brands such as Marlboro and Chesterfield, has been stepping up its efforts to combat littering by getting involved in clean-up operations such as World Cleanup Day, and awareness-raising campaigns.   “We need to tell people [smokers] that it’s not okay to litter. We also need to raise awareness that [butts] contain plastic. Filters are made from bioplastic [known as cellulose acetate], but still, they can take years to degrade,” she told Eco-Business.   So why don’t tobacco companies, armed with vast resources to pool into research and development, make biodegradable filters? Sommer said a biodegrable cigarette has yet to be invented, that can be handled and extinguished easily and has “the right taste”.   “If it [a biodegradable filter] altered the taste of your favourite cigarette, you might stop buying it,” she said.   And even if the industry developed a biodegradable filter, it would be extremely important not to send the wrong message to smokers that it’s okay to litter, she added.  

Butt tax?

  Doug Woodring, founder and managing director of Hong Kong-based marine plastic solutions group Ocean Recovery Alliance, said that what tobacco companies are doing now to combat cigarette butt pollution is not nearly enough.   Woodring argued that it’s much easier for people to casually flick a cigarette butt than drop a plastic bottle or drinking straw. “Education [to stop butt-flicking]? Good luck with that,” he said. To tackle the problem effectively, serious legislation is required, said Woodring. He proposes a butt tax—not to be confused with anti-obesity legislation—where an additional tax is placed on cigarettes that goes towards a fund for cleanup efforts, or a system where smokers are given rebates for disposing of smoked cigarettes at public collection points.   “Without an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law [that makes tobacco companies responsible for post-consumer tobacco waste], or some kind of tax on cigarette butts, not much is going to happen [to reduce butt littering],” he said.   Sommer said that Philip Morris supports policy measures that effectively reduce cigarette littering, including EPR laws for tobacco companies, as cigarette butts could be considered single-use plastic. But she added that such laws “need to make economic and environmental sense”.   “We are often asked why were are not recycling cigarette butts. This is because they are contaminated with toxicants, and washing butts to make them clean enough for recycling does not yet make sense from an economic or environmental perspective at a larger scale.”   Woodring pointed out that recycled butts can be used to make new products. New Jersey-based firm TerraCycle has used cigarette butts to make park benches and shipping pallets. Though the recycling process is expensive, TerraCycle receives funding from tobacco companies to make the system work.   Though EPR laws for tobacco companies do not yet exist, as they do for other companies that make plastic and electronic products, soon they will, Woodring said.   “Everywhere, when you increase the tax on cigarettes, you see a decrease in smoking. If you introduce a system that holds tobacco companies to account for their environmental damage, you’ll see a decrease in their environmental impact,” Woodring said.”   The world is moving towards EPR systems for all issues, and tobacco companies that make major changes to reduce their environmental impact now could buy themselves time before regulators legislate, Woodring added.   One country that has leant on tobacco firms to help combat cigarette butt pollution is France. If firms did not take voluntary action to address the problem they would face legislation, France’s environment ministry warned. British American Tobacco responding by saying it would work with the government to educate smokers and distribute pocket ashtrays, but rejected the idea of a butt tax. Imperial Brands said it encouraged smokers to dispose of butts responsibly, and had no plans to re-engineer its filters to make them less polluting.   In June, the European Union issued a directive on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment, a law that will apply an EPR to the tobacco industry. Companies will have until 2024 to comply.   Sommer said that Philip Morris is “not waiting for regulations” and is already taking action to tackle cigarette filter pollution, and is also well aware of the impact of the heat-not-burn electronic products the company says it wants to replace cigarettes to bring about its mission for “a smoke-free future”.   “We have set up recycling and takeback centres that cover the majority of our [heat-not-burn] devices. This is something we’re doing regardless of the regulations,” she said, adding that the industry needs to work with governments and non-governmental organisations for any measures to be effective.   Electronic devices such as e-cigarettes are much less likely to be littered than regular cigarettes, Sommer added.   Last week, Philip Morris announced a plan to make all of its factories carbon-neutral by 2030.   Though reducing the harm its products do to its customers by encouraging a switch to heat-not-burn products is the company’s main sustainability priority, the firm’s 136-page 2018 sustainability report highlights emissions reduction, biodiversity, deforestation, water, fair working conditions and child labour as other strategic priorities.

Cigarettes are the world’s most littered item and pollute the oceans with toxic microplastic. Philip Morris, the world’s biggest multinational tobacco firm, tells Eco-Business that it supports policies to curb butt pollution, but warns that biodegradable filters might encourage littering.

An advertisement for green group Sea Shepherd highlights the ecosystem damage of cigarette butt pollution to mark World Oceans Day. A single cigarette can pollute 500 litres of water, the ad warns. Image: Sea Shepherd Though few people would ever say this publicly, it could be argued that, by killing 7 million people a year, tobacco companies are doing the world a favour by keeping human population growth in check. But tobacco does more harm—or good, if you’re a hardened misanthrope with a disregard for human suffering—than merely killing people. Smoking pollutes the air with all manner of toxins, farmers fells millions of trees to grow tobacco, dropped cigarettes start forest fires, and tobacco companies emit millions of tonnes of carbon in the curing process, guzzle millions of gallons of fresh water to process their products, and use child labour.   As if that wasn’t a big enough environmental and societal footprint, tobacco companies are now adding to the world’s electronic waste crisis by pivoting towards “heat-not-burn” products like e-cigarettes that are supposedly less likely to kill their users than lighting up a Marlboro. Taxes on cigarettes have been designed for governments to make revenue and to discourage people from smoking, not for tobacco companies to reduce their environmental impact.   Doug Woodring, founder and managing director, Ocean Recovery Alliance   But an often overlooked impact of the tobacco industry is that, of the 5.6 trillion cigarettes manufactured and smoked by 1.1 billion people annually, two-thirds of their butts are dropped irresponsibly, ultimately ending up in the sea. Cigarette butts, which are made of non-biodegradable plastic fibres, are the most common form of marine litter, and have been reigning ocean pollution champions for more than three decades, according to beach clean up data from Ocean Conservancy, a non-governmental organisation. They are, by far, the most littered item on the planet. Yet it is the makers of plastic bags, drink bottles and drinking straws that shoulder most of the blame for the plight of the oceans. And while a cigarette butt is less likely to choke a turtle or starve a whale than a plastic bag, there have been calls from activists in the United States to ban cigarette filters because of the environmental damage they cause. Researchers have found remnants of cigarette butts, which contain synthetic fibres and a smorgasboard of toxic chemicals used to treat cigarettes, in the guts of 70 per cent of seabirds and 30 per cent of sea turtles. Cigarette butts take anywhere between 18 months to 10 years to break down in the environment, depending on the conditions, and 12 billion butts are discarded around the world every day. Laurence Ruffieux, director of operations, sustainability for New York-headquarted Philip Morris International, said to tackle the problem requires the three e’s—empowerment, by providing smokers with places to responsibly dispose of cigarette butts; education, making people aware of the damaging consequences of butt-flicking; and enforcement, fines and other ways of punishing litterers. She added that the role of tobacco companies in contributing to the final ‘e’ was obviously limited. Ruffieux said that Philip Morris, the world’s largest multinational tobacco firm that makes about US$30 billion a year from selling cigarette brands such as Marlboro and Chesterfield, has been stepping up its efforts to combat littering by getting involved in clean-up operations such as World Cleanup Day, and awareness-raising campaigns. “We need to tell people [smokers] that it’s not okay to litter. We also need to raise awareness that [butts] contain plastic. Filters are made from bioplastic [known as cellulose acetate], but still, they can take years to degrade,” she told Eco-Business.

Even if we create a biodegradable filter, it sends the message that it’s okay to litter. Laurence Ruffieux, director of operations, sustainability, Philip Morris International

So why don’t tobacco companies, armed with vast resources to pool into research and development, make biodegradable filters? Ruffieux said a biodegrable cigarette has yet to be invented, that can be handled and extinguished easily and has “the right taste”. “If it [a biodegradable filter] altered the taste of your favourite cigarette, you might stop buying it,” she said. And even if the industry developed a biodegradable filter, it would send the message to smokers that it’s okay to litter, she added.

Butt tax?

Doug Woodring, founder and managing director of Hong Kong-based marine plastic solutions group Ocean Recovery Alliance, said that what tobacco companies are doing now to combat cigarette butt pollution is not nearly enough. Woodring argued that it’s much easier for people to casually flick a cigarette butt than drop a plastic bottle or drinking straw. “Education [to stop butt-flicking]? Good luck with that,” he said. To tackle the problem effectively, serious legislation is required, said Woodring. He proposes a butt tax—not to be confused with anti-obesity legislation—where an additional tax is placed on cigarettes that goes towards a fund for cleanup efforts, or a system where smokers are given rebates for disposing of smoked cigarettes at public collection points. “Without an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law [that makes tobacco companies responsible for post-consumer tobacco waste], or some kind of tax on cigarette butts, not much is going to happen [to reduce butt littering],” he said. Ruffieux said that Philip Morris supports policy measures to reduce cigarette littering, including EPR laws for tobacco companies, as cigarette butts could be considered single-use plastic. But she added that such laws “need to make economic and environmental sense”. “We are often asked why were are not recycling cigarette butts. This is because they are contaminated with toxicants, and washing butts to make them clean enough for recycling does not yet make sense from an economic or environmental perspective.” Woodring pointed out that recycled butts can be used to make new products. New Jersey-based firm Terracycle has used cigarette butts to make park benches and shipping pallets. Though the recycling process is expensive, Terracycle receives funding from tobacco companies to make the system work. Though EPR laws for tobacco companies do not yet exist, as they do for other companies that make plastic and electronic products, soon they will, Woodring said. “Everywhere, when you increase the tax on cigarettes, you see a decrease in smoking. If you introduce a system that holds tobacco companies to account for their environmental damage, you’ll see a decrease in their environmental impact,” Woodring said.” The world is moving towards EPR systems for all issues, and tobacco companies that make major changes to reduce their environmental impact now could buy themselves time before regulators legislate, Woodring added. One country that has leant on tobacco firms to help combat cigarette butt pollution is France. If firms did not take voluntary action to address the problem they would face legislation, France’s environment ministry warned. British American Tobacco responding by saying it would work with the government to educate smokers and distribute pocket ashtrays, but rejected the idea of a butt tax. Imperial Brands said it encouraged smokers to dispose of butts responsibly, and had no plans to re-engineer its filters to make them less polluting. In June, the European Union issued a directive on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment, a law that will apply an EPR to the tobacco industry. Companies will have until 2024 to comply. Ruffieux said that Philip Morris is “not waiting for regulations” and is already taking action to tackle cigarette filter pollution, and is also well aware of the impact of the heat-not-burn electronic products the company says it wants to replace cigarettes to bring about its mission for “a smoke-free future”. “We have set up recycling and takeback centres that cover the majority of our [heat-not-burn] devices. This is something we’re doing regardless of the regulations,” she said, adding that the industry needs to work with governments and non-governmental organisations for any measures to be effective. Electronic devices such as e-cigarettes are much less likely to be littered than regular cigarettes, Ruffieux added. Last week, Philip Morris announced a plan to make all of its factories carbon-neutral by 2030.   Though reducing the harm its products do to its customers by encouraging a switch to heat-not-burn products is the company’s main sustainability priority, according to Ruffieux, the firm’s 136-page 2018 sustainability report highlights emissions reduction, biodiversity, deforestation, water, fair working conditions and child labour as other strategic priorities.

EcoGeneration founder David Gardiepy (right) filters through plastic recycling for a resident.

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