In Spain, dropping that cigarette butt will be an expensive affair — albeit for the tobacco companies.
In an attempt to become a smoke-free country in the near future — New Zealand already is attempting this by introducing a new law, restricting the sale of tobacco to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 — Spain is now making tobacco companies pay for the cost of cleaning up millions of cigarette butts discarded every year under the new Spanish environmental regulations.
The new law, which comes into force on Friday, was reportedly approved last year as part of a bunch of regulations that were designed to reduce waste and increase recycling, reports The Guardian.
The new legislation also includes banning single-use plastics such as cutlery and plates, cotton buds, expanded polystyrene cups and plastic straws, and cutting back on plastic food packaging.
Let’s dive deeper to understand what the new rules say and how it would make tobacco companies in Spain pay hundreds of millions annually.
Also read: E- cigarettes: Why vaping is harmful and how it affects humans
The new rules explained
According to The Independent, the law adapts to a European Union directive that limits the use of single-use plastics to oblige polluters to clean up the mess they are creating.
As a result of this law, cigarette manufacturers will be accountable for raising public awareness about the dangers of butt disposal. It is unclear how the clean-up drive will be implemented or how much it will cost. However, one study suggests that the total bill for tobacco companies could top EUR1 billion (Rs 8,785 crore).
In another research by Rezero, a private foundation, the annual cost of cleaning up cigarette butts in the region of Catalonia is between EUR12 and EUR21 (Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,800) per inhabitant. The rate is even higher for those residing in seaside areas where beaches are covered with cigarette butts.
As per the report conducted in collaboration with Catalonia’s regional administration, “In Catalonia, cigarette butts generate more than 2700 tonnes of waste per year, and it is estimated that 70 per cent of cigarettes smoked globally end up on land or in natural spaces.”
It is also unclear how the cost would be applied, but the report suggests that the companies will pass the expense on to the consumer, giving them another reason to quit smoking.
Spain’s attempt to be smoke-free
The new law could pave the way to reduce the number of smokers in the European nation. According to government statistics from last year, around 22 per cent of Spaniards smoke — 23.3 per cent of men and 16.4 per cent of women — compared with an European Union average of 18.4 per cent.
A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) also revealed that every Spaniard adult and adolescent smokes cigarettes –18 per cent of adults smoked tobacco in 2020 and 21 per cent of adolescents aged 15-16 smoked cigarettes in 2019.
Statistics from the Spanish health ministry have also revealed that lung cancer — often caused by smoking — is the country’s third most frequently diagnosed cancer, with 29,549 cases until November 2021, as per the Spanish outlet The Local.
In light of these figures, Spain has been taking steps to try and limit smoking. Spain was the first European country to adopt a strict smoke-free provision with a complete ban on smoking in enclosed public areas, transport, and workspaces – with only limited exceptions allowed, according to The Local.
As per Independent, it also banned smoking on beaches in 2021 to reduce the number of butts making their way into the sea. Over 525 beaches (17.5 per cent of the total) were declared smoke-free.
Barcelona also banned smoking at all 10 of the city’s beaches last year.
Lauding the move, the WHO had stated that the benefits of beach smoking bans are “extensive” as they “not only help decrease second-hand exposure to tobacco smoke, which causes more than 1.2 million premature deaths per year on a global scale but also reduce litter, prevent harm to the environment caused by cigarette butts and improve amenities.”
According to Independent, the Spanish campaign group Nofumadores.org was the first organisation to call for the ban of tobacco sales to those born after 2007.
In fact, earlier in 2022, the Catalonian authorities had put forward a proposal where anyone who hands in a pack’s-worth of cigarette ends at a recycling point could earn EUR4 (Rs 351). “We want to put a stop to the present situation where around 70 per cent of cigarette butts end up either on the ground or in the sea,” Isaac Peraire, the head of the Catalan waste agency, had said about the idea.
Also read: Why the US FDA wants to ban menthol cigarettes
The most littered item on Earth
Cigarette filters are one of the most littered items on the planet as it contains over 7,000 toxic chemicals.
“Roughly 4.5 trillion cigarette filters pollute our oceans, rivers, city sidewalks, parks, soil and beaches every year”, according to Dr Ruediger Krech, Director of Health Promotion at WHO.
The butts contain microplastics and make up the second-highest form of plastic pollution worldwide. Every year, the tobacco industry costs the world more than eight million human lives, 600 million trees, 200 000 hectares of land, 22 billion tonnes of water and 84 million tonnes of CO2, says WHO.
The Ocean Conservancy NGO reports that cigarette ends are the most common form of marine pollution, more even than plastic bags, and bottles, with an estimated five billion discarded in the ocean.
And the clean-up of its ends is an expensive affair too. A WHO report says each year, this costs China roughly $2.6 billion (Rs 21,533 crore) and India roughly $766 million (Rs 6,342 crore). The cost for Brazil and Germany comes in at over $200 million (Rs 1,485 crore).
With inputs from agencies
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