Researchers from the Institut Méditerranéen d'Océanologie (MIO) and the Institut National des Sciences et Technologies de la Mer (INSTM) have set themselves the objective of assessing the impact of cigarette butts on the diversity of microorganisms and the release of metals into the marine environment in Tunisia.
Cigarette butts are the main form of plastic waste found in the environment, accounting for up to 40% of the waste collected on Mediterranean beaches. Every year, more than 6,000 billion cigarettes are smoked around the world, resulting in more than half a million tonnes of cigarette butts being released into the environment. Unfortunately, these cigarette ends, which are mainly made of plastic, are not very biodegradable and contain many toxic compounds produced by combustion, which can threaten living organisms. Yet we currently know very little about the fate of cigarette ends in marine ecosystems and their impact on marine flora and fauna.
In their study published in 2020 in "Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science", the Franco-Tunisian research team showed that cigarette butts increase concentrations of iron, manganese and zinc in the marine environment, contribute to the acidification of seawater and modify the composition of bacteria present in surface sediments by favouring the development of bacteria generally known to live in deep underwater hydrothermal sites, known as "black smokers".