There are a couple things that everyone can agree on. Cigarettes are pollutants. They are discarded when they are done being smoked and add to the piles of trash around the globe.
Cigarette smoke is bad for people and the environment and also adds to overall air pollution and the greenhouse effect. No one can dispute that cigarettes are pollutants however most people do not realize the impact that cigarettes have on the environment. Each year it is estimated that billions of cigarette butts are discarded. It takes about 2000 cigarette butts to make a pound. When you think about what one average smoker discards on a yearly basis the “pounds” of trash adds up rather quickly, we already reported on the cigarette butt pollution issue and how it takes large percentage of the total garbage we produce globally.
Here is the math based on one smoker. An average smoker smokes about a pack of 20 cigarettes per day if you multiply that by 365 days per year you get an average of about 7300 cigarette butts in the trash per year. Which is roughly 6 pounds of cigarette butts per person that smokes when you times that by the worldwide population that smokes the impact is in the thousands of tons per year!
While electronic cigarettes do generate some waste it is a much smaller amount. Ecigs are recyclable. The replaceable parts are discarded but at a rate of about 20x’s less than a traditional cigarette. Also consider that most disposable e-cigarette batteries and cartridges can be recycled, further reducing the amount of waste. They do not produce any smoke or stain items with carcinogenic pollutants.
There are still some people that will read this and argue that e-cigarettes are produced in factories which of course have an environmental impact but on the flip side, just about every consumer good is produced in a factory. Even “green” items that are good for the environment often have a considerable footprint left behind from production.
Overall, the argument that e-cigarettes have a positive outcome by reducing the amount of tobacco cigarettes put out cannot be disputed. Cigarette butt pollution has been a problem with no solution for as long as it has existed. We can at least count on the numbers to start decreasing year by year as we continue to reduce smoking rates in favor of personal health. Electronic cigarettes simply play a supportive role in the battle and bring a fair share of advantages past helping the public switch to alternative nicotine delivery systems.