Bangkok: According to data presented in a new study, environmental pollution caused by plastic in cigarette butts and packaging is worth $26 billion annually, and $186 billion (adjusted for inflation) in value lost every 10 years. is causing This financial loss comes in the form of waste disposal and damage to the global aquatic environment.
According to researcher Debra K. Sai, this loss may seem small compared to the total economic and human loss, but it is increasing and avoidable.
He said that although major steps have been taken to reduce or ban the use of single-use plastics worldwide, the plastics used in cigarettes have been largely ignored. .
Despite the fact that the cigarette filter (the main component of the cigarette butt) is the most commonly collected item of waste in the world, it is made from single-use plastic.
To try to measure the global economic damage caused by toxic waste from tobacco products, the researchers turned to currently available public data sources on cigarette sales, sanitation costs, and plastic waste on land and at sea.
These sources include World Bank, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), The Tobacco Atlas and The World Wildlife Fund.
Each plastic filter weighs an average of 3.4 grams and is thrown in the trash along with the plastic packaging. A standard pack size of 20 cigarettes has an average weight of 19 grams.
The researchers estimated annual and 10-year environmental and economic losses from cigarette plastics based on tonnage measurements. The reason for including the 10-year estimate is because of the time it takes for a cigarette butt to dissolve, it takes about 10 years for a cigarette butt to dissolve.
The researchers presented the analysis in a study published in the journal Tobacco Control.
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