(NSW) Ban Cigarette Filters

Author: Lily Black & Amaany Abdul Gadir | Publish date: 14/10/2025

Problem Identification: 

In NSW, cigarettes with filters are still available for consumer purchase.

Under section 8(2)(a) in Part 2, Division 2 of the Product Lifecycle Responsibility Act 2025 (NSW) (the PLR Act), certain products can be prescribed as ‘regulated products’ and subject to mandatory stewardship requirements, including restrictions or prohibitions on sale. Cigarette filters, however, are not currently prescribed as a regulated product under the Act.

This means that both plastic and biodegradable filters can continue to be sold and distributed in NSW. Cigarette filters are known to significantly contribute to non-biodegradable waste, pose risks to wildlife and negatively impact biodiversity. Song et al. and Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) have noted that cigarette filters do not improve health, mislead smokers into feeling safer and harm the environment.

Context: 

Cigarette filters refer to the cylindrical components placed at the mouthpiece of a cigarette. Tobacco in Australia, an evidence resource managed by Cancer Council Victoria, has highlighted that cigarette filters were introduced by tobacco companies in the 1950s and marketed as a safer alternative to unfiltered cigarettes. 

According to the NSW Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), most commercially available cigarettes contain filters made from cellulose acetate, a common type of plastic. Cellulose acetate filters are known to be ‘photodegradable, not biodegradable’, breaking down into thousands of microplastic fibres when exposed to UV light but never fully decomposing in the environment. 

Cigarette filters have been linked to increased cancer and health risks by creating a ‘false sense of safety’. Research by Song et al. found no proven health benefits of filters when compared to unfiltered cigarettes and suggested their use may even be associated with elevated cancer rates. Supporting this, the DEA has associated filters with rising rates of lung adenocarcinoma, the most common subtype of lung cancer. Behavioural research by Pulvers et al. further revealed smokers often perceived filtered cigarettes as ‘less potent and less negatively reinforcing than unfiltered cigarettes.’ This misperception, the DEA has noted, ‘has been reinforced by tobacco industry marketing.’ The DEA has emphasised that this false sense of safety ‘lead[s] to more intense smoking behaviour’. Consequently, The New York Times Magazine has referred to filters as the ‘deadliest fraud in the history of human civilization’. 

Plastic filters are known to be a major source of pollution. No More Butts has surfaced a report from the NSW EPA that stated in NSW alone, an estimated 1.32 billion cigarette butts are littered every year, most containing a plastic filter. They further reported that once discarded, they often ended up in stormwater systems, rivers and oceans, contributing significantly to plastic pollution, impacting our ‘fragile ecosystems and enter[ing] our food chains.’ Research by Joly & Coulis has further identified that these filters can persist for up to 14 years before fragmenting into microplastics, releasing toxic chemicals as they degrade.

Although biodegradable cigarette filters have been promoted as a solution, environmental researchers Joly & Coulis and Dr Karen Evans-Reeves et al. have cautioned that biodegradable filters are not a suitable alternative. Evans-Reeves et al. stressed that ‘biodegradable filters would still leach harmful chemicals into the environment if discarded improperly’. Similarly, Joly & Coulis noted that biodegradable filters can take up to 13 years (vs plastic filters taking 14 years) to break down, sometimes releasing higher levels of toxic substances than plastic filters. Furthermore, researchers on tobacco regulation and its environmental impacts have warned that marketing them as ‘safer’ or ‘greener’ reinforces smoking. Moreover, No More Butts has noted that recycling either plastic or biodegradable filters is not a practical solution in Australia, as there is no ‘scalable, or commercially viable’ way to process them. They also said recycling should only be considered as a last resort if bans fail, proven environmental benefits exist, and it is consistent with Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC (so false solutions supporting the tobacco industry are not promoted).

Advice/Solution Identification:

The NSW Minister for the Environment should amend section 8(2)(a) in Part 2, Division 2 of the Product Lifecycle Responsibility Act 2025 (NSW) to prescribe all cigarette filters, regardless of material, as a regulated product and establish under Part 3 a stewardship requirement that prohibits the sale and supply of single-use plastic cigarette filters.

No More Butts and the DEA have called for this. No More Butts has argued that a complete ban could help prevent cigarette filters from entering the environment, whilst also reducing misleading health messages targeted to smokers. Further, DEA has stated that a ban would likely result in ‘reduced smoking prevalence and a decrease in the number of cigarettes smoked by each consumer’ and be a ‘significant cost-saving in clean-up of a problematic litter item and in reduced healthcare expenditure from a decrease in tobacco consumption’. 

Precedent:

There is international precedent for banning plastic cigarette filters. In the US, Santa Cruz County, California, has voted to ban the sale of cigarettes with single-use plastic filters, effective from 1 January 2027.

Download the 1-Page Brief Here - (NSW) Ban Cigarette Filters .pdf

Download PDF • 141KB

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Public Support: 

1. No More Butts 

2. Doctors for the Environment Australia

Similar:

3. Clean Up Australia - They call specifically for a national ban on filters.

   
   

News Coverage:

• ABC News: “New laws banning menthol cigarettes and demanding individual warnings kick in”. New anti-smoking laws in Australia that took effect on April 1, 2025, include a ban on menthol cigarettes, health warnings on individual cigarette sticks and new graphic warnings on packaging. By: Dannielle Maguire | Tue, April 1, 2025 - Read the article here.

• 9News  - “‘Cannot be avoided': Grim warnings to be printed on every cigarette from today”. Explores new mandatory changes to tobacco products in Australia to include health warnings on individual cigarette sticks, new graphic warnings on packs, health promotion inserts and a phased ban on menthol. By: Sarah Swain | Tue, April 1, 2024 - Read the article here.

• The Guardian - “Cigarette butts: how the no 1 most littered objects are choking our coasts”. The Guardian explains that cigarette butts, made of plastic, are the most littered item in the world, with an estimated 4.5 trillion filters littered annually. Ashifa Kassam | Thu, August 18, 2022 - Read the article here. 

• CNN - “Cigarette filters are the No.1 plastic pollutant … and don’t prevent cancer”. Despite being made of a type of plastic, cigarette filters were a marketing tool used by the tobacco industry to make cigarettes seem less harmful. It highlights that filters do not provide health benefits and are a major source of global plastic pollution. Sarah Lazarus | Fri, January 25, 2019 - Read the article here.

Where to go to learn more: 

• No More Butts - Submission to NSW government regarding the importance of banning cigarette filters and how this issue intersects with the UN Sustainable Development goals, Australia’s current environmental goals and the triple planetary crisis. The submission also includes letters of support from politicians, academics and organisations. Read the full submission here. 

• Doctors for the Environment Australia - Submission to the NSW Environment Protection Authority in collaboration with No More Butts detailing the health, environmental and economic impacts of cigarette filters that they believe are the most pressing. Read the full submission here. 

• Clean Up Australia - Clean Up Australia has their own campaign to tackle the pollution caused by cigarette butts, putting forth the option of a levy implemented per cigarette, but also recommending that the solution with the highest chance of success and impact is a ban. Read about the campaign here and the Litter Report here.

• WWF Australia - WWF Australia’s report Ending Cigarette Butt Pollution outlines the scale of cigarette butt litter across the country, its toxic impacts on ecosystems, and recommends a mandatory product stewardship scheme to reduce billions of discarded filters each year. Read about it here.

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) - The WHO released a report detailing the environmental impact of the Tobacco industry. Read the report here.

• Product Lifecycle Responsibility Act 2025 (NSW) - Read the full act here.

Human Perspective:

David started smoking in his twenties, convinced that the filters somehow made smoking less harmful – a belief shaped by decades of industry marketing. Thinking they were safer, he smoked more often and inhaled more deeply. When David was diagnosed with lung cancer, his doctor told him the filters hadn’t made smoking safer at all – they’d only given him the illusion of it. He was shocked. Now, every time he sees a discarded butt on the footpath or at the beach, he feels the weight of the lie that hooked him.

To protect the anonymity of those involved, this is a fictionalised account drawn from an amalgamation of real-life stories, experiences, and testimonials gathered during the research process for this brief. Any resemblance to actual individuals is purely coincidental.

Conflict of interest/acknowledgment statement: 

No More Butts called for this specific solution in an email exchange with FORE Australia on 9th August 2025.

Support 

If your organisation would like to add your support to this paper or suggest amendments, please email Info@foreaustralia.com. 

Reference list: 

Cancer Australia. (2024). Types of lung cancer. Australian Government. https://www.canceraustralia.gov.au/cancer-types/lung-cancer/types-lung-cancer

Department of Health and Aged Care. (2019). Guidance for Public Officials on Interacting with the Tobacco Industry. In Department of Health, Disability and Aging. https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-05/guidance-for-public-officials-on-interacting-with-the-tobacco-industry.pdf

Doctors for the Environment Australia. (2024, November). NSW Plastics: The way forward: Submission to NSW environment protection authority. https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/971a027b-4c58-496c-955f-ebd84dd6a1f4/downloads/26181835-62fb-4201-ada8-52b672898b98/DEA%20submission%20NSW%20Plastics%20Way%20Forward%20consul.pdf?ver=1746238765908

Evans-Reeves, K., Lauber, K., & Hiscock, R. (2022). The “filter fraud” persists: The tobacco industry is still using filters to suggest lower health risks while destroying the environment. Tobacco Control, 31, 80-82. https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2020-056245

Everaert, S., Schoeters, G., Lardon, F., Janssens, A., Van Larebeke, N., Raquez, J.-M., Bervoets, L., & Spanoghe, P. (2023). Protecting public health and the environment: Towards a general ban on cellulose acetate cigarette filters in the European Union. Frontiers in Public Health, 11. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1282655/full

Joly, F.-X., & Coulis, M. (2018). Comparison of cellulose vs. plastic cigarette filter decomposition under distinct disposal environments. Waste Management, 72, 349–353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.11.023

New South Wales Environmental Protection Authority. (2025). Reducing cigarette butt litter. https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/your-environment/litter/targeted-programs/reducing-cigarette-butt-litter

Mortensen, J. (2012). Who made that cigarette filter? New York Times.https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/magazine/who-made-that-cigarette-filter.html 

No More Butts. (2024). Next steps for tobacco filters: A problematic and unnecessary plastic impacting the NSW environment, and human health. https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/971a027b-4c58-496c-955f-ebd84dd6a1f4/downloads/NSW%20Next%20Steps%20Submission%20-%20No%20More%20Butts.pdf?ver=1746238765908

Novotny, T. E., & Hamzai, L. (2023). Cellulose acetate cigarette filter is hazardous to human health. Tobacco Control, 33, 663-668. https://doi.org/10.1136/tc-2023-057925

Parker, J. (2025, March). Butt Litter Index 2024: Research on cigarette disposal behaviour for the NSW EPA (Report No. 6930). NSW Environment Protection Authority. https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-04/Butt%20Litter%20Index%202024.pdf

Polk , J.-K., & Thompson, K. (2025, June 25). The City of Santa Cruz Bans the Butt! Save Our Shores. https://saveourshores.org/the-city-of-santa-cruz-bans-the-butt/

Product Lifecycle Responsibility Act 2025 (NSW). https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-2025-022#pt.2

Pulvers, K., Tracy, L., Novotny, T. E., Satybaldiyeva, N., Hunn, A., Romero, D. R., Dodder, N. G., Magraner, J., & Oren, E. (2021). Switching people who smoke to unfiltered cigarettes: Perceptions, addiction and behavioural effects in a cross-over randomised controlled trial. Tobacco Control, 32, 520-523. https://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2021-056815

Song, M. A., Benowitz, N. L., Berman, M., Brasky, T. M., Cummings, K. M., Hatsukami, D. K., Marian, C., O’Connor, R., Rees, V. W., Woroszylo, C., & Shields, P. G. (2017). Cigarette filter ventilation and its relationship to increasing rates of lung adenocarcinoma. JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 109(12). https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djx075

Winnall, W., & Scollo, M. M. (2022). 12.8 Construction of cigarettes and cigarette filters. In Tobacco in Australia, Cancer Council Australia. https://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-12-tobacco-products/12-8-construction-of-cigarettes-and-cigarette-filters