‘War on cigarette butts’: Coalition plan to reduce pollution ‘never existed’, Tanya Plibersek says

Taskforce established by previous government was to examine pollution solutions including removing butts from cigarettes. Photograph: Larina Marina/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Almost two years after the former Coalition government declared “war on cigarette butts”, a promised taskforce to reduce pollution still hasn’t been established.

Up to 9bn plastic cigarette butts are discarded and washed into waterways in Australia each year, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature. The filters can take up to 15 years to break down into microplastic.