Centre gets three more weeks to declare cigarette butts ‘toxic waste’

An ashtray filled with cigarette butts is pictured the Oklahoma County Courthouse in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015. Most public buildings are now smoke free, and smokers must smoke outside. Fifteen years after its creation, programs launched by the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust have dramatically reduced tobacco use among Oklahomans. Adult smoking decreased from 28.7 percent in 2001 to 23.3 percent in 2013. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday granted the Centre three more weeks to formulate a reply regarding its stand on declaring cigarette and bidi butts “toxic waste”.

The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) have been asked to file their response on prohibiting consumption of tobacco in any form in all public places as it spoils the aesthetics and spreads communicable diseases.

Non-government organisation Doctors for You, a organisation working towards cancer care, had moved the NGT praying that the Centre be directed to declare cigarette and bidi butts “toxic waste”.

The organisation said: “Smoking and chewing tobacco should be allowed only in designated places where norms for disposal of cigarette or bidi butts and toxic saliva are in place. Such designated areas should be licensed and monitored jointly by the Environment and Health Ministry.”

The outfit claimed that discarded cigarette butts or filters that litter the streets continue releasing nearly 4,000 toxins that are also present in cigarette smoke. Cigarette butts are the most littered item globally. The filters are designed to trap tar and other toxins before they reach a smoker’s lungs.

A cigarette butt is made of cellulose acetate, a plastic filter that traps remnants of a smoked cigarette. Cellulose acetate is degradable under ultraviolet rays, but not biodegradable and can persist in the environment for generations. A cigarette butt takes almost 18 months to degrade and even un-smoked filters exhibit a small level of toxicity and there is no process of segregation of cigarette butts from waste.

The petitioner brought forth the findings of the Kerala State Forest Department, which revealed that around 60 hectares of forest was lost between February 2009 and March 2010 due to fires started by carelessly thrown cigarette butts.

Regarding tobacco spits, the petitioner said they not only ruin aesthetics, leading to wastage of public money on upkeep and maintenance, but also spread diseases.

It cited the example of Howrah Bridge, whose pillars are reportedly corroding due to acids in tobacco spits. The saliva of tobacco users is laden with carcinogens and toxic chemicals which contaminates the environment.