GENEVA: A new UN partnership aims to raise awareness about the environmental and health impacts of microplastics in cigarette butts, the most discarded waste item worldwide. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Secretariat of the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) will launch a social media campaign to highlight the issue. The partnership is facilitated through UNEP’s Clean Seas campaign, a global coalition of 63 countries devoted to ending marine plastic pollution. It combines the two agencies’ respective experience on the health and policy dimensions of tobacco products, and research and advocacy on plastic pollution. Globally, more than six trillion cigarettes are produced annually, each containing filters, or butts, that are mainly composed of microplastics known as cellulose acetate fibres. TLTP
