Consumer giants are trying switch to other materials and convince customers to use refillable containers, but those efforts face big challenges

Americans are good at a lot of things: making cheese, sending astronauts to space, playing football. But we’re bad at recycling. We recycle only 34 percent of the paper, glass, plastic and other stuff that we could, according to Beth Porter. She’s the climate and recycling director for Green America, a nonprofit organization that supports sustainability.   In January 2018, the United States got a little worse at recycling. China used to buy 700,000 tons of plastic alone from us every year, to make into new products. Then the country stopped buying almost all our recyclables. Suddenly, our bottles, cans and newspapers had nowhere to go.   How did this happen?   “We were lazy and didn’t keep up with the latest technology to sort paper from plastic and aluminum at recovery facilities,” says Randy Hartmann. He is senior director of affiliate operations for an organization called Keep America Beautiful. We sent everything all mixed up to China. The country couldn’t use our “contaminated” trash. China updated its standards. Then, says Hartmann, “we couldn’t meet them.”   Some cities, such as Eugene, Oregon, couldn’t afford to collect certain types of plastic anymore. Other cities, including Phoenix, Arizona, saw an opportunity. Hartmann says Phoenix has created a “circular economy” of its own. It now collects its community’s plastic trash and turns it into fuel.   Some businesses have stepped up, too. An Australian paper company called Pratt Industries built a paper mill in Ohio to take mixed-paper recyclables. That includes junk mail fliers that “got hit hardest when China changed their rules,” according to Hartmann.   A company called TerraCycle sends out special “zero waste” boxes for collecting lots of products, including plastic bottle caps, action figures or art supplies. After you fill the box, you send it back to the company to recycle everything inside.   Still other companies are turning plastic grocery bags, juice cartons and even cigarette filters into plastic “lumber.” Local governments are helping by getting better at teaching people what can and cannot be tossed in the recycling bin.   “They’ll come out and look in your cart and say, ‘Oops, your gardening hose and holiday lights shouldn’t be in here!’ ” Hartmann says.   Recycling facilities are also starting to update their equipment. Instead of using humans to sort paper, plastic, glass and metal by hand, they are buying machines that can sort things robotically, or even optically — that is, with a camera that can tell the difference between materials.   It’s going to take a year or two to get this new equipment up and running. But, says Hartmann, “It’s a great time to reset, and a lot of innovative things are happening out there.”   We still have a way to go before we are doing recycling just right, Porter says. “Companies must learn from recyclers how to make products and packaging that are recyclable. And they also need to use more recycled materials in making their products,” she says.   We need local governments to develop pro-recycling policies, too. And most of all, says Porter, “we need to practice the three R’s in order: reduce first, then reuse and lastly recycle.”   Recycling tips 1. Learn what can be recycled in your own community and stick to it. No “wish-cycling.” 2. Learn recycling best practices. Rinse bottles and cans, and cut the super-oily spot from the pizza box before recycling the rest. Learn more from the Recycling Raccoon Squad at recyclingraccoons.org. 3. Print out your local recycling rules and paste them on the bins. That way, everyone in your family can do it correctly. 4. Away from home? Find a recycling bin for your empty water bottle. Better yet, take a reusable water bottle. 5. Get your teachers involved. Have them take your class on a field trip to a local recycling facility. Write letters to local politicians asking them to support the “three R’s.”

LOL Surprise toys, which are made by MGA Entertainment and include Bratz dolls, told CNN Business that it’s working on a “brand new biodegradable plastic for 2020.” Along with the new plastic, the company has partnered with recycling organization TerraCycle, offering consumers the opportunity to ship their old packaging and toys to TerraCycle or drop them off at one of its locations, where they will be reconstituted as pellets for new uses. The sustainability initiatives are meant to address the large amount of waste LOL products generate. CNN Business reported: The current packaging is essentially the 21st century’s waste-filled Russian nesting doll: The package itself is shrink-wrapped in plastic. Once you open the package, you’re greeted by small plastic bags. Once you open those plastic bags, you’re greeted by another plastic casing that’s filled with sand and trinkets, each individually wrapped in plastic.

Don’t be fooled by Thanksgiving’s seemingly inherent nature of overindulgence: like any meal, this holiday can be made less wasteful. With Thanksgiving kicking off the American holiday season, it’s the perfect testing ground for practicing zero-waste principles and learning new strategies to enjoy stuffing yourself (and your turkey) without stuffing landfills.   The holidays come with an uptick in cooking, which inevitably leads to greater food waste, not to mention all the packaging that can go into it. The National Resources Defense Council estimates that during Thanksgiving last year, Americans wasted about 204 million pounds of turkey alone, which is only a fraction of the estimated 5 million tons of food in total that Americans toss between Thanksgiving and New Year.   If these numbers seem extraordinarily huge, it’s because they are: that’s a lot of trash. And according to Lauren Singer, CEO and Founder of Package Free, “when you throw food waste into a landfill, it releases methane, which is more potent of a warming gas than CO2.” This means that food waste is a direct contributor to climate change, and given that even on a regular day, the average American produces 4.4lbs of waste, everyone plays a part in the planet’s warming.   But, this is good news: it also means that every single person has the power to directly impact climate change in a positive way by reducing their own waste. With that in mind, here are some suggestions for those with the financial ability and access to make this Thanksgiving and holidays beyond as waste-free as possible. Start from scratch   Premade food items often come wrapped in thin non-recyclable plastic or packaged in plastic or styrofoam. Added benefits of making certain items from the ground up include having control over the quality of ingredients used in the recipe, the total amount used, and learning how to make things yourself.   Even better, opt for “ugly” foods, or food that would otherwise get sent to landfills without even hitting shelves for whatever reason. Misfits Market offers a service aiming to reduce the amount of food waste that comes from extremely high produce beauty standards by delivering boxes of erroneously unwanted food for purchase. It saves a trip to the grocery store, and they even offer holiday add-ons.   Redefine decorating   When it comes to bowls, plates, and other tableware, a lot of people go the plastic route for the sake of ease. “If you’re worried about al the dishes, ask people to bring their own plates and cups and silverware,” suggests Singer, adding that “it makes a really beautiful eclectic, unique tablescape.” Similarly, take a look at the decorations you use and find out if there are more natural ways to dress up the table. Singer advises using natural elements from outside, or even some of the ingredients.   Compost food scraps   Because food waste is such a huge part of overall holiday waste, and a director contributor to greenhouse gas when it ends up in landfills, addressing this aspect of cooking for Thanksgiving can make a huge difference. When cooking, set up a big bowl or bag right next to your cooking station to make sure none of the food scraps accidentally get thrown into the garbage. This is a great way to also “clean as you cook” and keep your kitchen tidy.   If you do end up with some extra waste that doesn’t seem compostable or even recyclable, consider trying out TerraCycle, a new technology that can help divert almost anything from the waste loop.   Love those leftovers   An unofficial Thanksgiving tradition is to repurpose leftovers into meals for days to come, so invite your guests to take some of their own. But instead of wrapping leftover food up in plastic or tinfoil, have guests bring stainless steel containers of their own. If they don’t have any, provide them! “I gave my holiday presents last year during Thanksgiving, buying everyone their own stainless steel container to take leftovers home,” Singer says. As a bonus, guests can bring these same containers back for Christmas as a ready-to-go kit.   Don’t overdo it   The easiest way to not make food waste is to not cook more food than you really need. Cut recipes in half, or even be so bold as to eliminate some. Does the green bean casserole barely get touched each year but you keep making it because it’s a holiday staple? If you and your guests don’t actually intend to eat it, consider leaving it off the menu. Traditions, just like habits, can be changed.  

Americans are good at a lot of things: making cheese, sending astronauts to space, playing football. But we're bad at recycling. We recycle only 34 percent of the paper, glass, plastic and other stuff that we could, according to Beth Porter. She's the climate and recycling director for Green America, a nonprofit organization that supports sustainability.   In January 2018, the United States got a little worse at recycling. China used to buy 700,000 tons of plastic alone from us every year, to make into new products. Then the country stopped buying almost all our recyclables. Suddenly, our bottles, cans and newspapers had nowhere to go.   How did this happen?   "We were lazy and didn't keep up with the latest technology to sort paper from plastic and aluminum at recovery facilities," says Randy Hartmann. He is senior director of affiliate operations for an organization called Keep America Beautiful. We sent everything all mixed up to China. The country couldn't use our "contaminated" trash. China updated its standards. Then, says Hartmann, "we couldn't meet them."   Some cities, such as Eugene, Oregon, couldn't afford to collect certain types of plastic anymore. Other cities, including Phoenix saw an opportunity. Hartmann says Phoenix has created a "circular economy" of its own. It now collects its community's plastic trash and turns it into fuel.   Some businesses have stepped up, too. An Australian paper company called Pratt Industries built a paper mill in Ohio to take mixed-paper recyclables. That includes junk mail fliers that "got hit hardest when China changed their rules," according to Hartmann.   A company called TerraCycle sends out special "zero waste" boxes for collecting lots of products, including plastic bottle caps, action figures or art supplies. After you fill the box, you send it back to the company to recycle everything inside.   Still other companies are turning plastic grocery bags, juice cartons and even cigarette filters into plastic "lumber." Local governments are helping by getting better at teaching people what can and cannot be tossed in the recycling bin.   "They'll come out and look in your cart and say, 'Oops, your gardening hose and holiday lights shouldn't be in here!' " Hartmann says.   Recycling facilities are also starting to update their equipment. Instead of using humans to sort paper, plastic, glass and metal by hand, they are buying machines that can sort things robotically, or even optically - that is, with a camera that can tell the difference between materials.   It's going to take a year or two to get this new equipment up and running. But, says Hartmann, "It's a great time to reset, and a lot of innovative things are happening out there."   We still have a way to go before we are doing recycling just right, Porter says. "Companies must learn from recyclers how to make products and packaging that are recyclable. And they also need to use more recycled materials in making their products," she says.   We need local governments to develop pro-recycling policies, too. And most of all, says Porter, "we need to practice the three R's in order: reduce first, then reuse and lastly recycle." - - - Recycling tips 1. Learn what can be recycled in your own community and stick to it. No "wish-cycling." 2. Learn recycling best practices. Rinse bottles and cans, and cut the super-oily spot from the pizza box before recycling the rest. Learn more from the Recycling Raccoon Squad at recyclingraccoons.org. 3. Print out your local recycling rules and paste them on the bins. That way, everyone in your family can do it correctly. 4. Away from home? Find a recycling bin for your empty water bottle. Better yet, take a reusable water bottle. 5. Get your teachers involved. Have them take your class on a field trip to a local recycling facility. Write letters to local politicians asking them to support the "three R's."

As thru-hikers, we’re already traveling off the beaten path. In an era of single-use plastics, disposable toiletries, and landfills the size of small islands, hitting the trail for months at a time is a step toward helping our beloved planet. Being able to fit all of my garbage into one plastic bag for days at a time showed me how much waste I was saving by living on the trail. However, there are always areas to improve and ways we can reduce our waste even when living out of a 50-liter pack.    

1) Take Advantage of the TerraCycle Program

    If you’re one to rely on freeze-dried meals while thru-hiking, you know how bulky those plastics can be. Instead of tossing them into the garbage, several companies encourage consumers to participate in TerraCycle. Backpacker’s Pantry and Mountain House both offer this innovative recycling strategy as a free waste-reducing option for hikers. With an online order at Backpacker’s Pantry, you can request a return recycling shipping label, which can be easily mailed out of any stop in town. Yes, this is one more thing to carry, but it’s worth it. For Mountain House products, you can print a shipping label right in town, box it up, and send it out. All free of charge.    

2) Buy Quality Gear

  We’ve all heard it: buy well, buy once. Before making large purchases, such as a tent, sleeping bag, or backpack, do your research. Choosing items that are specifically built for thru-hiking and long-distance treks helps avoid early wear and tear, saving both money and the environment in the long run. Sale and discounted items may be extremely enticing, but may result in an additional purchase sooner than necessary.  

3) Shop REI Garage Sales and Other Used Gear Programs

We all know REI’s generous return policy, but may fail to take advantage of these products coming full cycle. With like-new and usable returned gear, REI hosts garage sales for its members. If you can’t make one of these events, REI recently launched an online used gear store as well. Quality gear can be pricey, and this helps keep gear out of the landfills and in the backcountry.  

4) Replace Single-Serving Bars, Trail Mix, and Instant Coffee with Bulk Options

    This applies to resupply boxes and grocery hauls in town. It’s convenient to have wrapped, individual bars and snacks, but that extra plastic adds up quickly. Many grocery stores have bulk sections where you can fill up on nuts, dried fruit, and other goodies for one bag of homemade trail mix. Plus, you won’t have to pick out all of the gross raisins. Replacing single-serving snacks with bulk items makes a significant reduction in waste, and can save money as well. This also applies to instant drinks such as coffee. Instead of buying single-serving packets, consider a larger can and transferring it into a plastic (or reusable!) bag. Being mindful and cutting down on single serving snacks and utilizing TerraCycle programs means almost zero waste from food. Pretty impressive for a thru-hiker.    

5) Utilize Reusable Hygiene Replacements

    We’ll all need to wipe our butts. But there are ways to make sure those few precious squares of toilet paper we use are as environmentally friendly as possible. For ladies, investing in a Kula Cloth is a complete game changer. This reusable, absorbent pee square saved us from having to choose between using extra toilet paper or dealing with slightly damp shorts. As far as those situations where single-use toilet paper is unavoidable, there are post-industrial recycled content options available. This company uses bamboo and recycled paper to make their bathroom tissue. Investing in this sustainable swap definitely isn’t cheaper than stealing a few squares from the occasional pit toilet, but will make an impact nonetheless.   Women unfortunately have another hygiene issue to consider. A menstrual cup not only saves waste from single-use tampons and pads, but also is an enormous space and weight saver. There’s a few different brands to choose from, many of which are available in stores at CVS, Target, or online.  

6) Follow Leave No Trace Principles

In order to stay up-to-date on all the latest Leave No Trace guidelines, it is an imperative to check their website and brush up on all updated rules. In recent years lnt.org has included a new resource on how to geotag and use social media consciously. It’s up to all of us to keep these trails wild and pristine as possible for future generations to come as social media draws more visitors to the areas. Plus, we could all use a reminder to make sure our campsites and footprints leave as little impact as possible.  

7) Use a Microfiber Filtering Laundry Bag

This is an investment that will help our water systems at home and on trial. These laundry bags are designed to protect our clothes from releasing harmful plastic fibers into our waterways. While on the trail, this is a crucial way to ensure our clothes aren’t harming the streams and rivers we all benefit from in the backcountry. Also note that it is best practice to gather water and wash clothes elsewhere to prevent the stream of sunscreen, bug spray, and other unnatural products into our waterways.  

8) Keep a Reusable Garbage Bag

To be honest, I didn’t think twice before tossing my gallon-sized garbage bags with all my trash at each resupply. There was absolutely no reason for me to do this. I could’ve just as easily dumped all the trash out of the bag and refilled it. Or, better yet, brought along a lightweight reusable trash bag to avoid the use of any plastic.  

9) Carbon Offsetting Plane and Car Travel

  Many of the thru-hikes I’m eyeing require a bit of travel. Carbon offsetting is not a perfect solution to reducing our transit impact, but it’s a step in the right direction. Basically, for a minuscule purchase (around $2 or more if desired), you can offset the miles you traveled with these funds going straight toward emissions-reducing projects. The Good Traveler is a wonderful resource for all questions regarding carbon offsetting benefits.  

10) Replace Toiletries with Plastic-Free Options

Bamboo toothbrushes are gaining in popularity, and are a lightweight options to replace plastic brushes. Replacing plastic toothpaste tubes with bite-sized toothpaste bits is additionally an environmentally and weight friendly way to cut down on waste. This also saves us frugal thru-hikers from squeezing every last drop out of a long empty toothpaste container. Another simple money and plastic saving tip is to avoid buying single-use travel-size toiletries and invest in reusable tubes to refill with soap, lotion, or whatever helps you feel clean while living outdoors.   When it comes to protecting our beloved trails and environment as a whole, it’s up to all of us. Many of these tips may seem insignificant, but each small reduction in plastic use adds up quickly. As the time of year approaches when we are all dreaming of hitting the trail and may be planning trips for 2020, it’s imperative to consider ways we can reduce our impact.    

MGA Entertainment knows that the toys are creating massive amounts of plastic waste, and now they're trying to do something about it. CNN - LOL Surprise! It might sound like a text you'd get before receiving shocking news, but it's actually the name of one of the hottest toys.   The intricate kits filled with tiny plastic pieces are topping wish lists, but they've also been creating a huge amount of non-recyclable plastic waste. Amazon included five different versions of LOL Surprise kits on its Top 100 Toys list, and they can also be found at the top of multiple bestseller lists.   LOL items, made by MGA Entertainment, which also owns Bratz, are expected to bring in at least $500 million this year alone, according to AdAge. Price tags on LOL toys range from $5 to $240. Some versions include as few as three tiny plastic toys while others include more than 95.   The current packaging is essentially the 21st century's waste-filled Russian nesting doll: The package itself is shrink-wrapped in plastic. Once you open the package, you're greeted by small plastic bags. Once you open those plastic bags, you're greeted by another plastic casing that's filled with sand and trinkets, each individually wrapped in plastic.   MGA Entertainment knows that the toys are creating massive amounts of plastic waste, and now they're trying to do something about it.   "We are working on a brand new biodegradable plastic for 2020," MGA Entertainment's CEO Isaac Larian exclusively told CNN Business. He also shared that the company is planning on swapping plastic for paper for all the inner packaging of the toys.   As for the company's current sustainability initiatives, recycling company TerraCycle paired up with MGA Entertainment to cut down the waste that comes from the toy sets. The company aims to recycle not only the packaging but also the toys themselves when kids are done using them.   Consumers can either put their LOL packaging and toys in a box and ship it to TerraCycle or drop off the items at one of Terracycle's public drop-off locations. Once TerraCycle receives the LOL packaging, accessories and trinkets, the metal gets melted down and the plastic gets turned into pellets.   Stores can't seem to keep LOL Surprise toys on the shelves. "The top seven to 15 best-selling overall toys are LOL Surprise," Larian said. "We could have sold 60 percent more if we had inventory." according to Larian.  

KEARNEY — When Kristi Castillo’s 6-year-old son said to her, “Adults don’t care about the planet,” she decided to take action. Castillo, a researcher at Baldwin Filters, wife and mother of two, said her son Ian, now 9, was concerned about the amount of trash that is filling the planet. “And he said, ‘Look. Look at all the trash. They just put the trash everywhere. There’s trash on the ground. There’s trash everywhere they eat. Everybody just throws trash everywhere,’” Castillo said. Castillo told Ian though that their family was recycling and didn’t litter. “And he’s like, ‘Well, that’s horrible.’ He’s like, ‘Our whole planet is going to get buried in trash,’” Castillo said. Ian also was distraught by photos on the internet of animals drowning in plastic. “He goes through every single one of those and tells me every scenario of everything that’s going to kill all the animals,” Castillo said. To calm and motivate Ian, Castillo told him that their family would achieve small goals to be part of the solution. They first stopped using plastic bags at the grocery store. Then the Castillos stopped buying products they didn’t need any more, such as individualized fruit snacks. “We don’t need single package snacks to go in your lunches,” Castillo said. In exchange, she bought food in bulk and packaged it in reusable containers. Castillo said they don’t use plastic sandwich bags. She then quit buying so many products online, which reduced the cardboard in her house and the fuel used by delivery drivers to get the goods to her door. Two years ago, she and her husband, Daniel, started compost piles in their Kearney backyard. They use a loose bin for grass clippings and cornhusks and another bin for produce scraps. Composting these materials, Castillo said, allows the food to break down properly and not emit gases into the atmosphere as it would in a landfill. The Castillos also set aside a bin for trash that can be washed and reused for community projects. Recently, Castillo began to stow away metal straws in her bag while out with her children. When ordering coffee, Castillo asks that they prepare her drink in a steel cup that she carries with her. “People think zero waste and all of that stuff is so hard and everything else, but it’s just little things that make a huge difference. You don’t have to do it all at once,” Castillo said. Now that Castillo has a handle on reducing and reusing in her home, she has spread her knowledge to her workplace and the community. At work, Castillo collects recyclables such as chip bags and pop cans from her co-workers. She also started a High Performance Team with other departments at Baldwin Filters to tackle waste at the plant. In the community, she shares “swap” ideas on her Facebook page — Kearney Area Reuse It — which she started in December 2018. The page currently has 400 members who also may exchange reusable items on the site. Castillo collects some of these items, such as toilet paper rolls and glass bottles, from other people through the site. She keeps the items in a storage unit, and then donates them to schools and children’s clubs for their art projects. Additionally she set up a TerraCycle bin for people to recycle razors and toothpaste tubes that other recycling centers won’t take. In October, she and a group of volunteers began to sew old T-shirts and scraps donated by T-shirt shops into bags. Since then, Castillo has given away about 350 bags to community members at Kearney Farmers’ Markets and at a Kearney grocery store, Grand Central Apple Market, 7 W. 25th St. “The people that come back to the (farmers) market with one, it’s like, ‘Yay!’ Because they didn’t just take one, they used it,” Castillo said. Though the Kearney Farmers’ Market is finished for the season, Castillo continues to stock a rack at Apple Market with the T-shirt bags. Volunteers soon will make bags and mats out of plastic sacks. The bags will be given away to anyone who needs them, and the mats will be donated to homeless shelters. Castillo’s next goal is to open a nonprofit brick-and-mortar business called ReUse It Center, where people may donate items or buy items at a low cost for their projects. The space also would house workshop space for people to take part in life skills classes, such as budgeting, meal planning, sewing and mending. Additionally, artisans and small businesses could sell their goods from the location. Earlier this month, Castillo won second place and $500 for the business plan at the University of Nebraska at Kearney’s ninth annual Big Idea business contest. Castillo said she plans to use the money to apply for nonprofit status for the business. A local lawyer and newly appointed ReUse It Center board members are helping Castillo with the paperwork and fundraising, respectively, to start the nonprofit. Through the center, Castillo hopes to raise awareness about how to live sustainably and teach people what happens to loose trash in Kearney. Along the Kearney Canal, Castillo said plastic bags are hanging from the trees. “That’s where it’s going. It’s all spilling out,” she said. “You can’t expect a handful of people to clean up everybody’s mess.”

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 fell 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. 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.