This study describes how tobacco growing, cigarette manufacturing and cigarette butts harm the environment. It provides an overview over the ecological footprint of the global tobacco sector and examples from three continents explaining the consequences in pratice.

Mwita M. Mangora shows how tobacco cultivation drives deforestation in the miombo woodlands in Tanzania. Farida Akhter explains how excessive use of agro chemicals contaminates river banks and the river Matamuhuri in Bangladesh. Susanna Knotz demonstrates how tobacco product waste and especially cigarette butts poison beaches along the Baltic Sea in Germany.

Additionally, all authors express their ideas how to deal with the problem – apart from reducing tobacco use: How to cure tobacco with less wood or other fuels? How to protect river banks and rivers? How to sensitize smokers for the toxic waste?

Authors: Sonja von Eichborn, Mwita M. Mangora, Farida Akhter, Susanna Knotz
Editor: Sonja von Eichborn, Unfairtobacco
Published: December 2018

The chapters on Tanzania and Bangladesh are also published in English:

Tanzania: Tobacco Takes its Toll in the Miombo Woodlands

Bangladesh: Tobacco Ruins Soil and Water Along Matamuhuri River

There is absolutely no justification to destroy agricultural lands for a toxic plant that is a threat for life and livelihood. (Farida Akhter)
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