Last Christmas, the locals in Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia, witnessed something very unusual. The local municipal waste management company had installed special containers in one of the city’s holiday markets to collect discarded cigarette butts. But what for?

Well, the authorities claim the goal is to turn this cigarette waste into asphalt for roads. This initiative aims to promote the development of more sustainable roads partly through the management and recycling of cigarette waste.

But why should we even care so much about cigarette butts, they don’t seem like a huge problem, right? Wrong!

Cigarette butts are causing a lot of harm

A shocking report reveals that humans smoke over six trillion cigarettes every year, or about 18 billion daily. 

Another report suggests that only one-third of the filters from these cigarettes are thrown in dustbins. The rest are discarded in the open on roads, sidewalks, parks, rivers, and other public places.   

“Filters from smoked cigarettes contain a significant amount of tar trapped in it. The tar contains thousands of chemicals and heavy metals. This is a significant environmental concern as the chemicals and heavy metals can leach into the soil or water sources and pose a threat to animals and plants, from there they can enter into the food chain as well,” the authors of a 2021 study focusing on the health risk from cigarette waste, noted.

The butts also contain plastic waste in the form of cellulose acetate. Unfortunately, the rise of e-cigarettes has worsened the cigarette plastic waste problem.  

When this cigarette litter enters into soil and water bodies, it causes pollution and adversely affects plant and animal life. For instance, the authors of a 2019 study highlighting the impact of filters on plants, said:

“Cigarette butts in the soil reduce the germination success and shoot length (the length of the stem) of clover by 27% and 28% respectively, while root biomass (root weight) is reduced by 57%. For grass, germination success was reduced by 10% and shoot length by 13%.”

Lab experiments show that toxins leached from a single cigarette butt can kill about 50 percent of the fish exposed to them. 

When it comes to humans, toxins from cigarette litter are associated with lung disorders, heart diseases, and even cancer. 

Slovakia’s small experiment could inspire a big change

To achieve their goal of cigarette recycling, Odvoz a Likvidácia Odpadu (OLO), the municipal waste management firm, and Bratislava city council collaborated with two other companies called Ecobutt and SPAK-EKO.

Ecobutt previously constructed an experimental short road partly using discarded butts in Žiar nad Hronom, a city located 170 kilometers distance from Bratislava. Cigarette butt filters can be recycled into fibers that can be used as an admixture for asphalt roads.

They are currently recycling 300 kilograms of cigarette litter daily, which means that they are preventing over 10 million butts from contaminating our environment. For this impressive feat, they were also nominated for the SozialMarie Prize for Social Innovation in 2023. 

OLO plans to install dedicated cigarette waste containers throughout Bratislava in 2024. The waste collected from these containers will be then processed by Ecobutt and others, turning it into asphalt.

Next, the prepared asphalt will be used to make roads in the city. 

“If visitors to a festival, run, market or other urban event throw cigarette butts into a special container, they will contribute not only to a cleaner environment but to the material recovery of this type of waste,” Martina Čechová, an OLO representative, said.

This isn’t the first time people have thought of recycling cigarette butts to make something useful. 

In 2011, researchers in Malaysia revealed a technique to develop lightweight-fired clay bricks out of cigarette waste. Another research published in 2023 proposes that the cellulose acetate in discarded butts can be used to make yarn.

However, none of these previously proposed solutions were implemented on a large scale. The current initiatives look promising because this time both the local authorities and innovators are working together, and they have already begun the process of collecting the waste.

Hopefully, Bratislava will trigger a positive change in the EU and other parts of the world.