The hidden cost of nicotine products

Walk down almost any city street, beach, or park, and you’ll see them: cigarette butts scattered along the curb, tucked into sidewalk cracks, or washed up along shorelines—4.5 trillion of them. They’re now so common they’ve become nearly invisible. But that ubiquity masks a growing environmental crisis—one that has only intensified as nicotine products evolve. For decades, cigarette butts have been the most littered item in the world. The filter—often mistaken as biodegradable—is made of cell...