Is Smoking Bad for the Environment?

Hey everybody! Here's this week's 'Ask Liv' question:

Hello! I was wondering, does smoking cigarettes or cigars harm the
environment in any way? Is it adding to our air pollution? Are they
actually biodegradable? Thanks.

Good question! You're not the first person to wonder about this. A quick Google search will show that a lot of people are curious about this same issue. I'll try to shed a little light on the situation.

The short answer to your question would be "yes, and no." If the question is whether or not the actual smoke produced from consuming a cigarette makes an impact on carbon emissions, then the answer would be "no." The carbon produced by smoking a cigarette is quite small, even when multiplied over a large scale. So in this sense, smoking is very far from being a cause of climate change. Driving one mile in your car has the equivalent emissions of around 70-80 cigarettes (maybe a few less if you've got a Prius).

At the same time, cigarettes and cigars don't magically appear on store shelves. They have a production process that, when factored into the overall footprint of the product, makes smoking look a bit more guilty. Each one requires paper to be produced and tobacco to be grown, and both of these processes are energy- and water-intensive. And that's not to mention the pesticides and other chemicals involved in tobacco farming. These raw materials must then be assembled, which requires even more energy. Over the 500 billion cigarettes that are produced in the US annually, these production costs undeniably add up.

As far as biodegradability is concerned, the chief components of cigarettes, paper and tobacco, are both biodegradable. However, cigarette filters are made from a type of plastic (cellulose acetate, in case you were wondering) that will stick around as long as any other plastic items, which is to say, a very long time. There are also trace amounts of a host of other chemicals in cigarettes that you wouldn't want ending up in your water supply. So there are definitely negative impacts of not disposing of cigarettes properly. They seem too small to matter, but imagine a pile of 500 billion of them.

Ultimately, if you're thinking about quitting smoking, do it for the health reasons. They are far greater, easier to demonstrate and easier to avoid than the environmental costs. But in case you need a bit more motivation, then yes, quitting will likely reduce your carbon footprint a bit. But don't stop there when there is so much more you can do!

Thanks for the questions everybody! Keep them coming!