The Hidden Environmental Cost of Cigarettes

By: Elena Jo

Cigarettes and smoking are fatal habits that kill more than 80,000 people per year. Despite this, people still can’t quit smoking. However, what many don’t realize is that cigarette use doesn't just harm people; It also damages the ecosystem and kills thousands of animals and plants.

Cigarette butts are the most littered item on earth with about 4.5 trillion individual butts polluting our global environment.  About 75% of cigarette butts end up on the street or in nature, detrimentally affecting marine life and life on land. When people litter, cigarette parts made out of biodegradable plastic accumulate in the environment, taking over 14 years to decompose. Meanwhile, the cigarette butts keep on releasing toxic materials into the environment, with about ⅓ of chemicals that are toxic to various species being released. Birds and marine animals can easily mistake cigarette butts for food, and when they ingest them, they can choke, suffer from digestive issues or even die. In Australia, cigarettes were found in the stomachs of birds, turtles, whales and fish, where they affect digestion and potentially lead to poisoning and starvation. Even worse, birds that lined their nest with discarded butts may experience long-term genetic mutations and other health risks due to the exposure of toxic chemicals.​​

Not only the animals and humans, but cigarettes  have also killed thousands of young trees. In May 2024, a single discarded cigarette butt started a fire that consumed the trees of Harrow Hills in the Forest of Dean in England. No deer or boar were harmed due to a deer fence enclosing the area, but bird nests and charred wood have been found afterwards, causing serious issues for insects, reptiles, and small mammal species. Ms Dawson, the community ranger of Forest of Dean, has described the site as “brown and dead.” The trees in the area where the fire started were only planted eight years ago, making the loss especially devastating.

To make space for such cigarettes to be made, about 200,000 hectares of land are cleared annually. Tobacco cultivation on forests started in the mid-1970s, and continues until now. Forests are cleared for tobacco plantation, and wood is burned to cure the tobacco leaves. Even after tobacco is produced, more wood is needed to create rolling paper and packaging for tobacco products. Our world has already experienced wood shortage in the 1970s and 1980s, mainly in Asia and Africa. These regions experienced fuel wood shortages due to tobacco growing,  with around 211,000 hectares of forest and woodland being used every year, accelerating deforestation. Tobacco farming has become the main cause of deforestation in many countries, and during the most rapid period of growth in tobacco farming, earth's forest cover has declined from 45% to 25%.

The impact of cigarette use is far beyond human health but the significant environmental issues. The widespread use of cigarettes and the resulting litter causes wildfire and pollution, and increasing tobacco farming is leading to massive deforestation. The expansion of cigarette production and use is gradually breaking down our precious environments. As we continue to witness the harmful effects cigarettes are causing, it is clear that this is a serious issue that we will have to address. By spreading awareness and raising concerns, we should reduce the harmful footprint of smoking and create a healthier planet for us all.

Work cited

Tobacco and its environmental impact: an overview. WHo, https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/255574/9789241512497-eng.pdf. 2017.

"Cigarette Butts." Clean up, cleanup.org.au/cigarette-butts.

Hunt, Danielle, and Maisie Lillywhite. "Thousands of trees 'killed by cigarette

     butt fire.'" BBC, June 2024, www.bbc.com/news/articles/c722j768p7ko.