A ban on plastic cigarette filters could prevent swimmers from bathing among “grim” butts, a Conservative former minister has said.
Dame Caroline Dinenage proposed the ban as an amendment to the Government’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill, in an effort to improve the cleanliness of waterways and save council taxpayers’ money.
“We have spoken at length for many years about the impact of sewage in the waterways, but we now need to talk about the impact of plastic,” Dame Caroline told the Commons.
Her proposed amendment, which has received backing from Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green Party MPs, would ban shops from selling plastic cigarette filters – both as standalone products and as part of ready-made cigarettes.
The MP for Gosport in Hampshire said: “Banning plastic filters will do absolutely nothing for public health.
“It will make a great deal of difference, though, to the thousands of my constituents who bathe or swim in The Solent or for the marine life that live there, too.”
Around 66% of all littered items are cigarette butts, according to the charity Keep Britain Tidy.
Dame Caroline said this was “litter that we are all paying to clean up”, when councils collect dropped waste.
She added: “This is pretty grim but bearing in mind that cigarette stubs can take around 14 years to degrade in the marine environment, swimming around Stokes Bay at the end of my road among little pieces of discoloured plastic is obviously unpleasant.
“But the bigger threat is to the environment.”
Dame Caroline warned that studies have shown cigarette butts when they break down are “toxic or very toxic to marine life”.
She added that marine ecosystems such as The Solent which lines her constituency are “precious” – supporting both tourism and nature-based solutions to flooding.
The MP said smokers can already buy biodegradable filters and “other large companies have already demonstrated it’s easy to make a switch in production that would be required to accommodate this change in the law”.
She added that “unlike” paper straws, used in place of plastic straws, “these biodegradable filters work and make no discernible difference to the user experience”.
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