While progress has been made concerning secondhand smoke exposure and its impacts on air quality, tobacco use continues to threaten the environment. Cigarette butts are the most littered item around the world. Roughly 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered globally each year, equaling 766,570 metric tons. In addition, Americans throw out more than 5 disposable vapes every second. Tobacco products leech toxic chemicals into the environment when they are discarded on the ground. The nicotine, pesticide residues, and metals that seep from these products can enter waterways and harm both aquatic wildlife and humans.1
It can be difficult to properly discard disposable vapes, making them even more harmful to the environment. The lithium ion batteries can cause fires and explosions in trash cans, garbage trucks, and waste management facilities. The e-liquid within these devices contain high concentrations of nicotine that can spill and come in contact with the skin of waste management workers, leading to nicotine poisoning. Roughly 90% of young e-cigarette users do not properly get rid of their vapes through an e-waste facility.1
Tobacco also harms the environment through its growth and production. Growing tobacco requires about 9 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of water and 600 million trees to be chopped down every year. Often times, tobacco is grown in countries that already struggle with a limited water supply. Between the extreme amount of water used and the pesticides added to the crops that leech into the watershed, these countries are left with an even scarcer water supply.2
As Earth Day just passed on April 22nd, now is the time to focus on protecting our environment from tobacco litter and waste. To join in on the efforts that began on Earth Day, rally together friends, family, neighbors, and community members, grab some trash bags, gloves, trash pickers, and any other supplies you may need, and clean up any tobacco litter that you can find in your community. If people work together to rid our environment of tobacco litter, we can improve the state of our environment and save wildlife. Our Reality Check youth conducted tobacco litter cleanups throughout Onondaga County while also educating their communities on the harms of tobacco on the environment. They were able to clean up large amount of litter as well as many tobacco litter items in their community as well! Please share with us if you join the effort to remove tobacco litter this spring!
For information on how to properly dispose of vapes and e-cigarette devices, visit:
Cayuga County: https://www.cayugacounty.us/705/Household-Hazardous-Waste
1Tobacco and the environment. Truth Initiative. (n.d.). https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/harmful-effects-tobacco/tobacco-and-environment
2Tobacco’s environmental impact: CO2, plastics, and water use. STOP. (2025, February 20). https://exposetobacco.org/news/effects-of-tobacco-on-environment/
Additional Resources:
World Health Organization. (n.d.). Tobacco and its environmental impact: An overview. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/publications-detail-redirect/9789241512497