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How tobacco companies are going to be used against cigarette butts

2021-02-22T18:19:21.530Z


Funding of cleaning operations, awareness campaigns ... The obligations aim to fight against pollution and strengthen the collection and management of cigarette butts.


Haro on butts!

Spotted by Les Échos, a decree published in the Official Journal last Thursday clarified the new missions devolved to cigarette producers in order to better manage the billions of butts abandoned on the ground each year.

A task that is similar to one of the labors of Hercules: in the city of Paris alone, the town hall estimated, in June 2019, that ten million cigarette butts are thrown into the street every day, or about 350 tonnes per year

.

Read also: Butts tax: what is true, what is false

These new rules are based on the polluter pays channels - or “

extended producer responsibility channels, EPR

”, in administrative language.

An EPR aims to structure and finance the collection and management of waste produced by a sector, by involving producers, including financially.

Although based on the individual responsibility of the producer, EPR can be provided by marketers individually or collectively, through an eco-organization,

” says ADEME.

They relate to several categories of products, such as printing cartridges, hazardous waste known as DASRI, or even chewing gum.

The anti-waste law had implemented several new REP, including one on "

tobacco products equipped with filters made entirely or partly of plastic and products intended for use with tobacco products

".

This aimed to "

structure the collection and treatment of cigarette butts, real plagues for the environment, made of plastic

", according to the Ministry of Ecological Transition.

The management of this waste will be handled by an eco-organization whose specifications are specified in the decree.

"

The deployment of this sector will take place in the course of 2021 and will rely in particular on one or more approved eco-organizations

", specifies the text

.

These will be “

set up and funded

” by the producers of tobacco products.

Concretely, the eco-organization will be responsible for managing the cigarette ends and participating "

in the prevention of illegal cigarette butt abandonment

".

Its objective will be to reduce, within three years, the number of cigarette butts abandoned in public spaces by 20% compared to the first year of accreditation of the organization.

This percentage will then jump to 35% within 5 years and to 40% within six years.

The eco-organization will have to assess the number of cigarette butts “

according to the different types of public spaces

” and it will have to present, within six months of its approval, a “

methodology for assessing the number of abandoned cigarette ends

”.

This will be evaluated by the stakeholders, including the ministry.

The evaluation of the number of cigarette ends should then take place at least every two years.

A battery of measures against cigarette butts

Several measures are put forward to achieve these objectives.

First of all, the eco-organization will have to propose “

devices for collecting cigarette ends and their management

” to local authorities or entities responsible for “

public health in its territory

”, as well as to people whose professional activity “

leads to the production of cigarette ends likely to end up in public spaces

”.

These groups will be able to manage the cigarette butts themselves or offer the eco-organization to take care of it.

Then, the eco-organization will have to offer tobacconists and local authorities reusable pocket ashtrays, free of charge, on request.

A financial contribution will also be made to the operations of “

cleaning up abandoned cigarette ends

” provided for example by the local authorities.

The amount varies according to the types of communities, ranging from 0.5 euros per inhabitant per year for rural communes of less than 5,000 souls to 2.08 euros per inhabitant per year for dense urban communes populated by at least 50,000 people.

Tourist municipalities are entitled to 1.58 euros per inhabitant per year.

Read also: Facebook and Snap facilitate the sale of illegal tobacco

This financial support will be reduced in 2021 and 2022, by the time the operation is set up, by 2023. The scale could change, a "

study to assess the costs of cleaning up abandoned cigarette

ends

" to be carried out by 2022, in partnership with ADEME and local authorities.

The support will be paid "

to the communities which formulate the request

" and "large-

scale events

" aimed at cleaning up the spaces could also be organized, at the expense of the eco-organization.

Communication campaigns must also be organized by the eco-organization to raise public awareness of this scourge.

Finally, "

the eco-organization devotes each year at least 5% of the total amount of financial contributions it receives to support information and awareness actions, including the distribution of pocket ashtrays

", specifies the decree. .

Studies should also make it possible to improve these devices, for example by reviewing "

the factors likely to influence the behavior of consumers of tobacco products in order to prevent the illegal abandonment of cigarette ends

".

And, in the longer term, the eco-organization will have to support projects "

aimed at developing innovative collection solutions, the recycling of cigarette ends into materials that do not pose a risk to health and the environment

".

For now, the eco-organization behind this REP is awaiting approval before being able to get to work.

The task promises to be titanic: these products take an average of twelve years to decompose, polluting nature and the surrounding waters.

The cigarette butt is even "

the plastic waste most found on European beaches, just after the plastic bottle

", noted in 2019 the ministry.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-02-22

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