The war on tobacco in Spain is not over yet. Over the past few decades, authorities have kept smokers out of restaurants, offices, hospitals, schools, and stadiums, made tobacco a more expensive vice through taxes, and, best of all, ensured that any citizen who smokes can take cigarettes to your home. lips know the risks you expose your body to. But the Government is not ending the offensive and has recently approved a royal decree focusing on tobacco, in line with European Union guidelines. Of course, this time the focus is on a very specific issue: the waste it produces.

This is not the only aspect, but one of the aims of the new rule is that streets and beaches being “cluttered” with cigarette butts will no longer be a common sight.

Tobacco and laws. If there’s one thing the tobacco industry in Spain knows, it’s regulation. Since the 1980s, various regulations have been approved that attempt to regulate (and limit) tobacco consumption, including the “Anti-Tobacco Act” of 2010. Now the industry will have to get used to a new Royal Decree.

To be more precise, rule 1093/2024 was published in the BOE on Wednesday and regulates, among other issues, the management of waste from both tobacco and filters in particular. In this case, the emphasis is on taking care of the environment rather than the health of smokers or those around them. “It is one of the ten most common single-use plastic items on EU beaches,” says the Ministry of Ecological Transition.

Factories? you recycle. The decree contains many measures, but one of the most relevant is that it requires tobacco producers to take responsibility for the garbage generated by their consumption. More precisely, the ministry is talking about fulfilling its “financial obligations regarding waste management”, a task that each company can undertake independently or collectively.

What does this obligation consist of? Teresa Ribera’s department details that producers must “finance the cleanup of scattered dumps.” And this, he explains, includes both the collection of waste discharged into “public management systems” and the collection of waste going into sanitation and treatment networks.

The government goes further and talks about “treatment” as well as “collection” of waste. There are also awareness raising activities and activities. Where rubbish collection depends on EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) systems, the model currently used for household packaging, tobacco companies will have to enter into agreements to pay for the management of their rubbish.

Another task: prevention. This is not the only task given to companies in the sector. The ministry explains that starting from 2030, producers who exceed at least the 2.5% annual quota must develop “prevention and eco-design programmes”. The goal is clear: to reduce the plastic load of their products and ensure they are not “abandoned as loose garbage”. In fact, the standard itself states the need to “specify” where these wastes usually accumulate.

There is more. The decree sets a medium-term target as part of this fight against cigarette butts. More like a necessity. Within five years, garbage bins on streets or squares will be able to separate “tobacco product waste with filters and filters”. The effort is still the same: to prevent cigarette butts from polluting beaches, which, as the Government reminds us, are already one of the most common types of litter and problematic.

Say goodbye to smoking on the beach? Adhere to. The decree gives city councils full power to limit tobacco consumption on beaches if they wish. If they decide to do this and translate it into their own regulations, smokers who violate the rule will face fines. A similar measure has been taken in Barcelona, ​​and there is even a “network of smoke-free beaches” in Galicia.

The ministry specifically refers to article 18.1.l of law 7/2022, which talks about “stopping” the formation of garbage on beaches and recognizes the ability of municipalities to “regulate restrictions” on beaches. The new rule makes clear that it is up to each city council to “impose restrictions” on smoking on beaches if they wish.

Anything else? Yes, the regulation, which received the green light from the Council of Ministers this week, foresees the possibility of going further in reducing the impact of tobacco on the environment. This means opening the door to, in the words of the Ecological Transition, “prevention targets” or even “design criteria or conditions” for products in the future. The adoption of “separate garbage” collection is not excluded if research recommends it.

I keep an eye on the shores. “This directive is part of the EU’s efforts to prevent and combat marine litter and focuses on the single-use plastic products most commonly found on beaches, including tobacco products,” says the Government. “It focuses on reusable plastic products. The environmental impact of these wastes thrown into the environment in an uncontrolled manner is huge,” he said.

Information poster of the World Health Organization’s FCTC.

Is the situation that serious? There is some data to help us get an idea. A published study Total Environmental Science Warning that 75 percent of smokers throw their butts on the ground after finishing their cigarettes, he insisted on the impact of this habit on the environment. “This waste disperses freely into the environment, is not biodegradable, contains 15,000 strands of fiber and contains more than 7,000 toxic chemicals released into the marine environment.” There are calculations that show that 2,720 tons of cigarette butts are produced annually in Spain alone.

The World Health Organization provides further enlightening information. According to their calculations, approximately 4.5 billion cigarette butts are thrown away every year. And since a picture speaks more than a thousand words, it gives a practical example of what this amount means: They would fill approximately 60,000 shipping containers and load them onto 30 ships. The organization also underlines that although a single cigarette butt may seem insignificant, its total amount actually poses a big challenge. “Cigarette butts and filters release toxic substances and microplastics into the environment,” he emphasizes.

The sector is making a move. El Gonierno isn’t the only one taking action. To comply with the guidelines of the new decree, the tobacco industry organized around an association called Ávora. The companies claim that this formation is an indication of “the industry’s determination to fulfill its environmental responsibilities.” In fact, one of its goals is to “undertake the costs associated with cleaning, transporting and processing waste” and to “strengthen” educational campaigns to reduce the impact of cigarette butts.

Clarifying the sector, the sector said, “The aim is to reduce the environmental impact of tobacco filter waste containing plastic, in line with the European Union’s SUP directive, which aims to reduce the environmental impact of some plastic products.” For six years, it developed various awareness campaigns to “promote the correct disposal of cigarette butts” and even distributed more than 205,000 portable and reusable ashtrays in public spaces across Spain.

Pictures | Brian Yurasits (Unsplash), Sajjad Zabihi (Unsplash) and WHO

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