Quit and help the environment, too

If it’s news to you, you’re not alone. Only about 20% of people know how smoking and vaping harm the environment through production and waste.¹

The environmental impact of smoking

Smoking doesn’t only harm your health and the health of those around you. It harms the environment, too.

To make cigarettes and loose-leaf (rollie) tobacco, tobacco crops must be grown. The harvested tobacco leaves must then be cured before treated and manufactured into cigarettes or rollie tobacco, and then transported for distribution. Once smoked, cigarette butts must be discarded.

The impact is huge, and on a global scale. Each year tobacco and cigarette production right through to disposal results in:

• 4% of deforestation globally, mostly in low and middle-income countries (as much as 30% of land in some low- and middle-income countries).²

• 3.2 million hectares of fertile land across 124 countries used to grow deadly tobacco – even in places where people are starving

• the use of 22 billion tonnes of water – enough water to fill 15 million Olympic-sized swimming pools³

• 84 million tonnes of greenhouse gases⁴

• significant use of pesticides

• 24 billion cigarette butts in Australia alone, which are made from non-biodegradable plastic. 8 billion of these are littered.⁵

Each individual cigarette requires 3.7 litres of water and creates 14 grams of carbon.² Altogether, producing tobacco uses 22 billion tonnes of water each year, equivalent to 15 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.³

The environmental impact of vaping

Since the nicotine used in most vapes is sourced from tobacco, vape production shares many of the same harmful environmental impacts as tobacco production.

Vapes also have some unique environmental impacts:

• Vapes are usually powered by lithium-ion batteries. These types of batteries can leak chemicals into the environment. They can also explode and cause fires at waste and recycling facilities.⁶

• Vapes create three types of waste: plastic waste from discarded vapes and pods; electronic waste, from the vaping device which includes computer circuits, hard plastics, heavy metals, and batteries; and hazardous chemical waste.

• The chemicals from e-liquid containers can't be recycled and the liquid can't be poured down the sink. Speak to your pharmacist about how to dispose of vaping products safely.