Plastic pollution from cigarettes likely costs $26 billion per year: Study, ET Retail

The costs of environmental pollution caused by plastics in cigarette butts and packaging amount to an estimated $26 billion every year, according to a study. The analysis, published in the journal Tobacco Control, found the costs to be $186 billion every 10 years-adjusted for inflation-in waste management and marine ecosystem damage worldwide.

These costs may seem small compared with the overall economic and human toll of tobacco, but they are cumulative and preventable, the researchers said.

Although great strides have been made in developing policies to curb or ban single use plastics around the globe, tobacco’s plastic has been overlooked, they said.

The team noted that this is despite the fact that cigarette filters-the main component of cigarette butts-are the most common item of rubbish collected on the planet. And they are made of…