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Cigarette butts on the lawn of the 91涩漫 Health Center, Glen site, April 2026.
The adverse consequences of tobacco smoking for human health are well known. The harmful environmental effects of tobacco plant growth and processing and of tobacco use and product disposal are less well appreciated but also significant.
Some examples:
- Tobacco farming contributes to about 5% of global deforestation, with 200,000 hectares of wood biomass lost per year.
- The use of pesticides, fertilizer, water, and charcoal for cultivation and curing creates significant byproducts; in 1995, these were estimated to comprise 2,000,000 tonnes of solid waste, 300,000 tonnes of nicotine-containing waste, and 200 000 tonnes of chemical waste.
- Wood/cardboard paper matches used to light half of the six trillion cigarettes smoked annually (gas lighters being used for the other half) require the destruction of about 4,500,000 trees.
- About 300 billion cigarette packets are produced and discarded annually, amounting to about 1,800,000 tons of waste paper, ink, cellophane, and foil.
- Tobacco smoking leads directly to the emission of 2,600,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide and about 5,200,000 tons of methane annually.
- Cigarette butts contain numerous potentially toxic substances and are one of the most common types of discarded human 鈥渨aste鈥�, accounting for 30-40% of litter collected in some coastal or urban cleanups.