Biodegradable filters are proposed as the solution to the environmental damage caused by cigarette butts. But those butts are just as toxic and, like plastic filters, they offer no health benefits. They only help manufacturers not to have to pay for cleaning up litter. 

By the web editors

A new form of greenwashing is emerging in the tobacco industry: the biodegradable filter. Instead of teaching smokers not to throw their butts on the street, the industry is trying to tackle the problem of the billions of plastic filters in litter with a less harmful alternative – again! Numerous suppliers now offer filters that do not contain plastic, are more biodegradable, emit less CO₂ during production and, because they do not contain plastic, do not fall under the rules of the European Single Use Plastics Directive (SUPD).

Cigarette filters are a huge burden on the environment. They are made of cellulose acetate, which is a form of plastic. Cigarette filters are among the top ten most common plastics in the world’s oceans, according to Tobacco Tactics. It is estimated that 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are left in the environment worldwide every year. Cellulose acetate filters break down into smaller particles under the influence of UV light (photodegradable). But they are not biodegradable. On average, they lose only 38 percent of mass in two years, with various toxic substances leaching into the environment.

Bio-filters save the industry money

Since 2021, single-use plastic products have been banned in the European Union under the SUPD. This concerns plastic cups, fast food packaging, disposable plastic tableware, and so on. Cigarette filters are not banned for the time being, but tobacco manufacturers must mention on cigarette packs that their products contain plastic and since 2023 they are obliged to pay for cleaning up litter. In the Netherlands, manufacturers are taxed for more than 40 million euros per year.

Cigarettes with ‘green’, biodegradable filters therefore save the industry money, because filters without plastic are not covered by the SUPD rules. In 2022, a director of cigarette manufacturing machines producer Körber (formerly Hauni) predicted that by the end of this decade, biodegradable filters will have an 18 percent market share. “It is important for manufacturers to invest in the design and production of their new filters right now to avoid being overwhelmed by future developments”, he said. Read: ‘that they will have to pay the full price for their waste’. Philip Morris also says through its employee Stefanos Papakyrillou that the SUPD is a ‘trigger’ to switch to biodegradable filters, although the company has not yet found the right material.

But what’s more, with these filters tobacco manufacturers can make a good impression on consumers. They may get the impression that the manufacturers are acting responsibly and think that they can now leave their cigarette butt ‘safely’ on the street, in the sand of the beach or on a forest path. However, the toxic substances from the tobacco that remain in the filter are no less. They probably end up in the environment even faster with a biodegradable filter.

Cigarette filters don’t filter anything

This new greenwashing comes on top of the much older deception that leads the smoker to believe that cigarette filters filter anything at all. However, that is not the case. There is no scientific evidence that the filters do anything for health, writes Tobacco Tactics. In his standard work ‘Golden Holocaust’, the American historian Robert Proctor even describes how a substance is added to the filters to make them turn brown when smoke is sucked through. This gives smokers the impression that all kinds of dirt are being stopped, but that is all an illusion.

The filters ensure that the smoker does not get tobacco threads in his mouth, as with filterless cigarettes. But otherwise, they mainly serve the industry itself, which can manipulate laboratory measurements of the amounts of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide (TNCO) in the emissions by piercing tiny holes in the filters. Youth Smoking Prevention is trying to put an end to this manipulation through a legal procedure that has been going on for years.

Filters that comply with the 10-1-10 standard

The industry of course denies all allegations in that procedure, but it is striking in this context that one of the suppliers of biodegradable filters, SWM International, mentions that a specific filter (Evolute Gen2) is “especially demanding for full flavor cigarette design complying with EU TNCO 10-1-10 threshold.” So, the filter does have significance in meeting that European standard.

SWM International, headquartered in Luxembourg, touts its Evolute filters as being certified biodegradable by the Austrian inspection body TÜV Austria. The filter is, the company states, designed to “solve operational, strategic and environmental challenges”.

SWM director Jorge Balthazar also makes no bones about it in an interview with Tobacco Asia: “The EU’s Single Use Plastic Directive spurred demand for alternatives to cellulose acetate filters, which are plastic-based and persist in the environment for a very long time.”

‘Good for smokers, politics and the environment’

Other providers use equally eye-catching formulations to promote their products. The Genia filter of German manufacturer McAirlaid’s is “the filter for cigarettes that allows the environment to breathe again” and that “tastes good to smokers, politics and the environment”. One of the best-known providers, Greenbutts in California, which has been in existence since 2010, is “dedicated to solving the global problem of cigarette butt pollution”. The Greenbutts filters would decompose in water in just a few minutes and start degrading in compost in a few days. The leftover burnt tobacco on a cigarette butt is not considered.

The ECO filters from Filtrona in Singapore comply with the regulations of the EU-SUPD, it mentions first in a description. In other words, they are not hindered by the directive. The overview of Filtrona’s entire range, including the acetate filters, in itself provides an insight into this industry. The filters can be equipped in a variety of ways with additives and click-balls that add extra flavour to cigarettes.

Cigarette filters which, biodegradable or not, pollute the environment, do not provide any health benefit and are a tool for manipulating laboratory measurements of toxic substances, should we not simply ban them?

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