N
F
E
R
H
IT’S NOT
EASY
BEING
GREEN
How do we ensure that e-cigarettes
remain an environmentally-friendly
alternative to their combustible
counterparts?
Words: Phoebe Fuller
56 VM25
F E AT U R E S
Cigarette butts have made up some 40 percent of all items picked up
in annual coastal and urban clean-ups internationally since the 1980s,
according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Chemical leakage from cigarette butts includes nicotine, arsenic and
heavy metals that are toxic to aquatic life. In fact, according to Action on
Smoking and Health (ASH), a cigarette butt left to soak in a litre of water
for 96 hours releases enough toxins to kill half of the fi sh exposed to it.
But the environmental ills plaguing the tobacco industry don’t stop there.
Tobacco growing and curing are direct causes of mass deforestation and
the WHO estimates that 11.4 million metric tons of wood is used annually
for curing tobacco alone.
Factor in the huge amount of chemicals such as pesticides and growth
regulators that are used during the tobacco cultivation process and it’s
clear the industry has a mammoth carbon footprint.
So, how does the e-cigarette industry compare? For Yogi Hendlin,
environmental philosopher and postdoctoral research fellow at the
Department of Medicine at the University of California, addressing the
end-of-life disposal is the key here.
He said:
“With e-cigarettes, we have a really interesting product because,
theoretically, there’s no reason why these products couldn’t be completely
recyclable.”
Recyclability, or the potential for recyclability, is where the e-cigarette
industry really beats Big Tobacco. Recycling the devices and their
associated components, however, can be hindered by them falling under
two challenging categories: electronic waste and hazardous waste.