Clean Up Britain
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Clean Up Britain, Tobacco Tactics, updated 15 February 2022, accessed 24 April 2024.
Clean Up Britain (CLUB) is a British non-for-profit organisation that uses behavioural interventions to reduce littering. CLUB has entered two partnerships with Philip Morris International (PMI) between 2019 and 2021 to create public campaigns against smoking-related littering.
Relationship with the Tobacco Industry
Research into portable ashtrays in partnership with PMI
Between 2019 and 2020, Clean Up Britain carried out a project in partnership with PMI to research a potential investment into portable ashtrays for the tobacco company. The report highlighted the potential role of PMI to “create and capture the portable ashtray market” and contribute to reducing cigarette litter1 In response, PMI stated that “The findings will be used to develop portable solutions that are more likely to be adopted by smokers on the move.” 23
Multi-year agreement with PMI
In January 2021, CLUB entered a multi-year agreement with Philip Morris Limited to “tackle cigarette butt litter”. Within this voluntary agreement, CLUB acts as independent administrator for a PMI-funded project.4 PMI reportedly paid a “seven-figure sum” to fund the project, which consists in applying “emotional” pressure on smokers caught littering cigarette ends.5 The campaign was launched in January 2022 in Bristol, under the title “Get Your Butt Off Our Streets”, to be later rolled out across Britain.6
While supportive of the initiative, Bristol City Council stated it could not “be directly involved due to it being funded by Philip Morris Limited”.6 Tobacco Industry sponsored public campaigns are not only recommended against by the Bristol City Council Advertising and Sponsorship Policy,6 but are also covered under the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control recommendations against tobacco sponsorship.78
CSR: Greenwashing
As an effort to align their image with socially and environmentally beneficial activities, PMI’s involvement in the campaign can be considered an example of Corporate Social Responsibility as a strategy, in particular as a practice of greenwashing. Greenwashing refers to the practice used by controversial industries to market their goods and/or image as environmentally friendly 9 in an effort to increase product sales and divert public attention from their own environmentally damaging practices.10
While cigarette filters that do not decompose are the most commonly littered item on earth,11 waste from tobacco products is far from the only environmental impact of the tobacco industry, whose activities contribute to soil degradation, deforestation, loss of biomass and pollution.11
The ”Get Your Butts Off Our Streets” campaign is aimed at “reducing cigarette butt littering at its source, by encouraging adult smokers to dispose of their cigarette butts properly.”12 Post-consumer waste, largely in the form of discarded cigarette butts, and its disposal, is however only the last step of life-cycle of a cigarette. Each step of the tobacco supply chain, from agriculture to distribution, contributes substantially to climate change and environmental degradation.
Relevant Links
TobaccoTactics Resources:
