Tackling tobacco waste — it's complicated

Apr 07, 2022 View in browser   By Debra Kahn THE BIG PICTURE The 4.5 trillion cigarette butts discarded globally each year would be enough to fill Central Park. | Graphic/data courtesy of HouseFresh Smoking has been on a decades-long decline in the U.S. But it's still a big environmental problem. The filters in most cigarettes are made out of plastic, they're the most common item found in beach cleanups, and they're not biodegradable. Lawmakers in California are trying to reduce the domestic waste stream but are running into obstacles. A bill introduced last month would have banned single-use, nonrecyclable tobacco and cannabis products, including cigarette and cigar filters and nonrechargeable e-cigarettes and cannabis vaporizers. The bill's sponsor, Assemblymember Luz Rivas (D-North Hollywood), said Tuesday that she would drop cigarettes, cigars and disposable cannabis vapes from the bill, leaving only e-cigarettes. The problem? Banning cigarettes would just move more of them to the black market and out-of-state sales, critics argue. The Assembly Health Committee cited an estimate that 44 percent of cigarettes consumed in California are smuggled. "We need a different solution to the litter problem," the committee's chair, Assemblymember Jim Wood (D-Santa Rosa), said at Tuesday's hearing. The idea of outlawing cigarette filters has support: A majority of Californians say they would back it, according to the California Department of Public Health. Support goes up even more when the ban is billed as a measure "to reduce litter waste." Backers of the bill say they'll keep pushing. They point to the value of reducing the number of lithium-ion batteries that enter waste facilities, where they can spark fires. ReThink Waste, a public agency that handles waste, recycling and compost for nine cities in the Silicon Valley region, says it has an average of more than two fires per month at its facility in San Carlos, Calif., and 80 to 90 percent of them are caused by lithium-ion batteries. Its insurance rates are going up due to the increased risk. "How do they get insurance if they're telling everyone how many fires they have?" said Heidi Sanborn, executive director of the National Stewardship Action Council, the bill's sponsor. "So many things have batteries, but this is one that's very, very easy." Waste agencies are backing restrictions on vapes in order to reduce the risk of lithium-ion battery fires at their facilities. | Debra Kahn / POLITICO   SUBSCRIBE TO NATIONAL SECURITY DAILY : Keep up with the latest critical developments from Ukraine and across Europe in our daily newsletter, National Security Daily. The Russian invasion of Ukraine could disrupt the established world order and result in a refugee crisis, increased cyberattacks, rising energy costs and additional disruption to global supply chains. Go inside the top national security and foreign-policymaking shops for insight on the global threats faced by the U.S. and its allies and what actions world leaders are taking to address them. Subscribe today.     The good news is that smoking is continuing to decline. Nationwide, smoking rates went from 20.9 percent of adults in 2005 to 12.5 percent in 2020, according to the CDC. Utah and California have among the lowest rates, while West Virginia, Arkansas and Kentucky have the highest. WHAT WE'RE CLICKING — The group that set the most commonly used corporate greenhouse gas accounting standards is rethinking its approach for fear of greenwashing. — Shell expects to lose up to $5 billion after leaving Russia. But high prices could result in a bumper profit this year, anyway. — Mushrooms send electrical signals to one another that "bear a striking structural similarity" to human speech. — Drought-weary Californians aren't stepping up their conservation: Asked to cut usage 15 percent, they managed less than 1 percent in February.   STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.       Follow us on Twitter Catherine Boudreau @ceboudreau Debra Kahn @debra_kahn Greg Mott @gwmott Lorraine Woellert @Woellert Jordan Wolman @jordanwolman   Follow us

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