Resolved clauseShareholders request that our Company report on its efforts to educate its customers who purchase tobacco products about the environmental damage caused by improperly discarded tobacco products, and provide information on methods of proper disposal.
Whereas clauseWhereas: Cigarette waste is the most commonly littered item in the US, with 1.69 billion pounds polluting the environment
every year. Cigarettes make up more than one-third of all collected litter. About 4.5 trillion cigarettes are discarded each year worldwide, making them the most littered item on Earth. Cigarette butts leach toxic chemicals into water, where they can remain for as long as 10 years.
The World Health Organization states that products such as cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes add to the build-up of plastic pollution. Cigarette filters contain microplastics and make up the second-highest form of plastic pollution worldwide.
According to Dr Ruediger Krech, Director of Health Promotion at WHO, tobacco products are the most littered item on the
planet, containing over 7000 toxic chemicals, which leech into our environment when discarded. Roughly 4.5 trillion cigarette filters pollute our oceans, rivers, city sidewalks, parks, soil and beaches every year.1
Despite claims by the tobacco industry that tobacco use the United States is declining, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that the number of cigarettes that the largest cigarette companies in the United States sold to wholesalers and retailers nationwide increased from 202.9 billion in 2019 to 203.7 billion in 2020.2
In 2022, drug stores and pharmacies in the U.S. sold approximately $1.3 billion of cigarettes. It is estimated that over 80%, or over 4 trillion cigarette butts are littered each year. In the United States, some 263 billion cigarettes were sold, and, assuming 80% were disposed of improperly, this would mean about 77 million pounds of cigarette-butt litter are dropped on the ground each year.3
A study (Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors about Cigarette-Butt Littering among College-Aged Adults in the United States)
published in 2022 concluded that smokers’ knowledge of cigarette butts’ toxicity, biodegradability, harmfulness to human and marine health was a key determinant in how they disposed of used cigarettes. In fact, “Smokers who thought of cigarette butts as litter were 3.68 (95% CI 2.04 to 6.66) times more likely to properly dispose of their butts.4
(1) WHO raises alarm on tobacco industry environmental impact, https://www.who.int/news/item/31-05-2022-who-raises-alarm-on-tobacco-industry-environmental-impact
(2) FTC Report Finds Annual Cigarette Sales Increased for the First Time in 20 Years | Federal Trade Commission,
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2021/10/ftc-report-finds-annual-cigarette-sales-increased-first-time-20-years
(3) Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors about Cigarette-Butt Littering among College-Aged Adults in the United States - PMC (nih.gov) 2.1,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9265565/#:~:text=It%20is%20estimated%20that%20%3E80%25%2C%20or%20over,4%20trillion%20cigarette%20butts%20are%20littered%20each%20year.
(4) Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors about Cigarette-Butt Littering among College-Aged Adults in the United States - PMC (nih.gov) 2.3,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9265565/#:~:text=It%20is%20estimated%20that%20%3E80%25%2C%20or%20over,4%20trillion%20 cigarette%20butts%20are%20littered%20each%20year.
Supporting statementWalgreens Boots Alliance describes in its 2022 ESG report various efforts to divert items from landfills and reduce waste. We believe that because our Company sells tobacco products, it bears a responsibility to educate customers about proper ways to dispose of these products.