No more cigarette butts on the street, that is the goal. The Municipality of Rotterdam joined the No (Plastic) Filter campaign this week. This campaign calls for a ban on the production of cigarette filters because these filters contain poison and plastic, all of which ends up in the environment.
Rotterdam has been committed to a cleaner living environment for years. But cigarette filters remain a persistent problem. They blow into corners, stick between the grooves of sidewalks, and in the water they break down into countless tiny fibers. They almost all contain plastic and also leak a lot of toxic substances, says Alderman Lansink-Bastemeijer.
Cleaning up cigarette filters is almost impossible because they lie almost everywhere and stick around. And what we can clean up costs a lot of money, the alderman explains. Therefore, a ban on production is ultimately the most effective.
Misleading product
On Tuesday, March 10, the alderman officially signed the call for the ban. Before that, there was a cleanup action, during which no less than 2000 filters were collected in half an hour.
Besides pollution, the filters do not make smoking any less harmful. A polluting and misleading product that should never have been introduced 80 years ago, says Karl Beerenfenger, campaign leader of No (Plastic) Filter.
Increasing support for the ban
Rotterdam is one of 28 municipalities that have joined the campaign. The municipalities would like to see a ban in an international context, such as in Europe or the United Nations. The Dutch government is investigating the possibility of a national ban.
The municipalities are supported in their call by a growing group of citizens and organizations such as Natuurmonumenten, the Consumers Association, the Association of Investors for Sustainable Development, and Health Funds for Smoke-Free.