A ban on plastic cigarette filters could prevent swimmers from bathing among “grim” butts - claim
A ban on plastic cigarette filters could prevent swimmers from bathing among “grim” butts, Gosport’s MP has said
Dame Caroline Dinenage proposed the ban as an amendment to the Government’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill, in an effort to improve the cleanliness of waterways and save council taxpayers’ money. But she has expressed disappointment after her proposal was voted down.
“We have spoken at length for many years about the impact of sewage in the waterways, but we now need to talk about the impact of plastic,” Dame Caroline told the Commons.
The amendment aimed to give tobacco companies 12 months to ensure that cigarette filters were no longer made with plastic. Currently, cigarette butts are made from cellulose acetate, a form of plastic which can take a decade to break down, doing considerable harm to the environment, wildlife and costing councils more than £40 million per year to clean up.
Her proposed amendment, which has received backing from Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green Party MPs, would ban shops from selling plastic cigarette filters – both as standalone products and as part of ready-made cigarettes.
She said: “Banning plastic filters will do absolutely nothing for public health. It will make a great deal of difference, though, to the thousands of my constituents who bathe or swim in The Solent or for the marine life that live there, too.”
Around 66 per cent of all littered items are cigarette butts, according to the charity Keep Britain Tidy.
Dame Caroline said this was “litter that we are all paying to clean up”, when councils collect dropped waste.
She added: “This is pretty grim but bearing in mind that cigarette stubs can take around 14 years to degrade in the marine environment, swimming around Stokes Bay at the end of my road among little pieces of discoloured plastic is obviously unpleasant.
“But the bigger threat is to the environment.”
Dame Caroline warned that studies have shown cigarette butts when they break down are “toxic or very toxic to marine life”.
She added that marine ecosystems such as The Solent which lines her constituency are “precious” – supporting both tourism and nature-based solutions to flooding.
The MP said smokers can already buy biodegradable filters and “other large companies have already demonstrated it’s easy to make a switch in production that would be required to accommodate this change in the law”.
She added that “unlike” paper straws, used in place of plastic straws, “these biodegradable filters work and make no discernible difference to the user experience”.
Responding to Caroline’s speech, Ashley Dalton MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Prevention said: “New Clause 2, tabled by the Hon. Member for Gosport, could lead to greenwashing, improving the reputation of tobacco manufacturers, whilst not necessarily improving environmental outcomes.”
After the vote, Caroline said: “I’m really disappointed that Labour MPs were whipped against this common-sense measure. They have said that they want to clean up our waterways and oceans and that is what my amendment would have achieved.
“Cigarette butts currently account for two-thirds of all littered items in the UK. I tabled this amendment because I want to clean up the Solent and the beaches in my Gosport constituency. Every day up to 6,000 plastic butts loaded with toxins are littered in our area, but as this shows, Labour don’t care.”