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Tobacco Free Action 2025 (ASH) is joining WWF Australia's call to address the impact of cigarette butts on our environment. ASH hopes that the New Zealand government will ban disposable synthetic filters, the main waste item in our environment.

Discarded cigarette butts are the most littered item on Aotearoa Island in New Zealand. More than 1.4 billion disposable plastic filters enter our environment every year.

With an average length of 25 mm, the buttstock will loop around our entire coastline twice when connected end to end.

A large number of cigarette butts eventually flow into our oceans and beaches, polluting waterways and poisoning wildlife.

Synthetic cigarette filters were introduced in the 1950s, and tobacco companies claim that they provide a safer alternative than filterless cigarettes. But the filter cannot significantly reduce the harm of smoking. Instead, they encourage smokers to smoke more frequently and smoke harder each time they smoke, thereby increasing the severity of many smoking-related diseases, including lung cancer.

Now, an important report from the World Wildlife Fund in Australia outlines that the butt, mainly made of non-biodegradable plastic, threatens wildlife and is the most littered item in Australia. The government spends A$73 million every year on clean-up work. It found that passing a mandatory national product management plan and/or banning the use of disposable plastic filters may minimize cigarette butt pollution.

ASH Director Deborah Hart welcomed the report and said: “The WWF Australia report tells New Zealand what Otroa needs. Banning the butt will protect our environment and our people. A win-win situation."

"The current government has shown leadership in other disposable plastic products (including bags and cosmetic microbeads). We hope to see this extend to disposable plastic cigarette filters, where the number of each item almost exceeds that found in our environment. All other garbage. They are inconsistent with our clean and green image and our goal of becoming a smoke-free country."

The government's 2025 smoke-free plan is imminent; it is considering a ban on buttocks. Ms. Hart added: “ASH hopes that the government will seize the opportunity to not only help protect the environment, but also to help us achieve the 2025 smoke-free goal by banning the use of cigarette butts, thereby reducing the attractiveness of cigarettes to smokers.”

· To learn more about cigarette butts (or filters) and cigarette butts ban, click here

· To read the WWF Australia report, please click here

· To learn more about the smoke-free program-what is needed and why, click here

· The smoke-free 2025 target is less than 5% of adults who smoke every day by 2025.

· Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in Aotearoa, New Zealand

· Nearly 5,000 people die every year (14 deaths per day).

· Since 2000, smoking has caused approximately 100,000 deaths.

· About one-tenth of adults smoke daily, but among Maori this proportion rises to one-quarter.

· On average, a smoker consumes 10 cigarettes per day ($6,500 per year).

ASH NZ-Action for Smokefree 2025, is an independent non-governmental organization that advocates evidence-based, ethical and effective actions to achieve smoke-free 2025 and reduce preventable deaths and diseases caused by smoking.

For more information, please visit: www.ash.org.nz

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