Where do cigarette butts go? Into the bricks!

Did you know that cigarette butts can take years to decompose in nature and still release heavy metals that end up infiltrating the soil and waterways? What to do with discarded butts? Upcycling!

On average, 1 in 10 Brazilian adults is a smoker and smokes more than 300 cigarettes per year. Although public awareness has improved over the years, the amount of cigarettes consumed is still very high. The planet needs new alternatives for the end of life of this material.

Every year, millions of cigarettes end up in landfills or are abandoned in parks, gardens, beaches and sidewalks, resulting in tons of toxic waste dumped into the environment.

But what useful destination can we give to butts?

Researchers at RMIT University, in Australia, found a new destination for this waste: transforming it into raw material for the manufacture of bricks.

For a long time the professor Dr. Abbas Mohajerani, research coordinator, focused his studies on finding alternatives to take advantage of this toxic material, but it was in the mixture of cigarette waste, together with clay, that he found his formula for success.

The study shows that adding just 1% of butts to the brick production process is enough to make a difference. The Australian researcher says that “if just 2.5 percent of the world’s annual brick production incorporated 1 percent of cigarette butts, we could solve the problem of waste from cigarette production on the planet.”

Using waste from cigarette butts as a raw material can also reduce the energy consumption required for the production of bricks by almost 60%. Even better, the final product is lighter and has better insulation properties, reducing heating or cooling in built environments.

It is worth noting that the new brick does not present any visual change in the final result. These sustainable bricks have the same appearance as traditional bricks and do not pose a health risk, since during their production toxic waste is attracted to the brick material and never come out.

Of course, if you smoke, you have all the support to stop. For those who still haven’t gotten rid of the addiction, at least now there is an environmentally better solution to the fate of cigarette butts. Who could imagine?

Article originally published in my column on the Noctula Channel website on 06/23/2016 and published here on 08/17/2022.

Sources: Pensamento Verde, Activa, RMIT University, Business Insider, Diário de Notícias, INCA, Revista Encontro, MDPI