Cigarette butts, the plastic pollution that's hiding in plain sight

Cigarette butts littering a pavement in Paris, on March 14, 2022. © EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP

As nearly 200 countries discuss how to cut plastic pollution at UN talks in Paris this week, environmental campaigners are pushing for a global ban on plastic filters in cigarettes – one of the biggest sources of plastic waste worldwide.

On the short walk to Wednesday's session of the negotiations on a global plastics treaty, Shannon Mead picked up a full bag's worth of cigarette butts.