Smokin’ Idea: Eco-Friendly Cigarette Filters Grow Flowers

Cigarette butts are a huge environmental burden; not only do they make the landscape ugly and dirty, but they also take a good 10 or 15 years to decompose. An imaginative company called Greenbutts has come up with a whimsical, lovely solution: biodegradable filters that help beautify the landscape with grass, flowers, herbs or other plants.

Greenbutts are all-natural filters made with organic cotton and hemp. The company developing the idea says that plant seeds could be included in the filter. If you happen to accidentally drop one on the ground (since, of course, you’d never intentionally litter) it would break down quickly and a little plant would grow in its place.

When partnered with additive-free tobacco, Greenbutts would make an all-natural cigarette. Of course, smoking will still kill you, but maybe you’d at least leave behind some pleasant landscaping. We have a few problems with the idea of putting seeds into cigarette filters, since it would be hard to avoid spreading non-native species all over where they don’t belong, but overall maybe it’s a step in the right direction for smokers. The company is still in the concept phase at the moment, with no firm plans to produce Greenbutts anytime soon.

submit to reddit
See more in Industrial Design or under Technology. April, 2010.