An ecological group is urging the Health and Environment Departments for a regulatory policy to ensure the proper management of cigarette butts or filters as toxic waste.

EcoWaste Coalition warned of the toxicity of cigarette filters and the huge number of butts discarded locally and globally.

"Cigarette butt waste is the most visible toxic garbage that we could find in our surroundings. Smokers litter butts on the streets, storm drains and even on beaches and parks, or throw them with regular discards for disposal at dumpsites or landfills oblivious of the fact that each butt poses a toxic threat to human and animal health and the environment," said group president Roy Alvarez.

The group said cigarette butts contain hazardous chemicals, including cancer-causing substances – and thus deserve to be categorized as toxic waste that requires environmentally-sound management and disposal policy.

Ecowaste is a member of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP).

Also, the group pushed extended producer responsibility, where “those who produce a toxic waste product should be held accountable for its cleanup.”

FCAP executive director Dr. Maricar Limpin added the ideal way to curb the problem is for smokers to just quit.

“We need to stop this notorious environmental pollutant from its source. The most effective way to curb this ubiquitous litter problem is, of course, for smokers to choose health over tobacco addiction and to quit smoking,” she said.

Harm to aquatic life

The group cited a paper from the journal “Tobacco Control,” which said “filters degrade very slowly and thus become an accumulating mass of potentially toxic waste.”

It quoted Richard Barnes of the California-based Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education as saying “the trillions of cigarette butts generated each year throughout the world pose a significant challenge for disposal regulations, primarily because there are millions of points of disposal, along with the necessity to segregate, collect and dispose of the butts in a safe manner, and cigarette butts are toxic, hazardous waste.”

He was quoted as saying toxic substances are leached from the filter and tobacco residue that pollute waterways, and probably pollute ground water near landfills that are not properly constructed to contain such leachates.

Also, he said aquatic life "may be harmed by the toxic leachates, and the butts may cause physical harm when ingested by animals.”

Barnes added butts collect in municipal storm drains and then may empty into waterways, and can clog the drains and sanitary sewer systems.

He said the economic and administrative burdens of cigarette butt waste should be taken off state and local government agencies and taxpayers.

"Following the principles of product stewardship and extended product responsibility, Barnes stressed that tobacco manufacturers should shoulder the entire financial burden for the collection, transportation and safe disposal of cigarette butt waste," EcoWaste said.

Meanwhile, EcoWaste cited figures from the Ocean Conservancy’s marine debris report for 2011 showing some 52,907,756 cigarettes or cigarette filters out of the total debris items of 166,144,420 were collected during the last 25 years of the annual coastal cleanup activities worldwide

The Ocean Conservancy also reported collecting 56,376 cigarettes/cigarette filters out of the total debris items of 763,262 collected in the Philippines in 2010, it said. — LBG, GMA News