With about 4.5 trillion cigarette butts thrown onto the streets annually around the world, cigarette butts are the world’s top source of litter. Filters are usually made out of plastic materials that have the same degradation properties as other plastics – meaning they take 18 months to 10 years to degrade.

These butts end up scattered around roads, park trails, and beaches, angering us with their unseemly presence, and hurting the inhabitants of the fragile ecosystems they ended up in. To provide some solution to these negative effects, Ben Forman, industrial designer at IDEO, created a biodegradable cigarette filter.





In addition to the biodegradable properties, each filter has seeds that can grow into a plant once the cigarette butt is discarded. The project is called Greenbutts, and is in its final stages of development with a prominent cigarette manufacturer. The cigarettes will be available by mid-late 2015 in selected regional markets in the country.





Visionaries + Movers Ben Forman (Designer)

Photos via: green-butts.com