When discarded, cigarette filters typically contain left-over, unsmoked tobacco. As such, they present a combination of bio-based plastic litter, tobacco, and a myriad of toxicants including nicotine, formaldehyde, heavy metals and a variety of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) retained in the filter after smoking ¹. Once cigarette butts are immersed in a water environment, these harmful substances will seep out and become cigarette butt leachate.

The project takes place in the smoking area of ​​a student accommodation in Battersea. Within one hour, collect cigarette butts discarded on the ground in this area, as well as soil and plants in the contaminated area. The collected cigarette butts were immersed in water to quickly release the leachate. The project uses double-layer exposure lumen printing. Through two exposures, the images of cigarette butts and natural elements are superimposed. The unpredictable visual distortion caused by the chemical reaction between cigarette butt leachate and photographic paper is also used to visualize the unknown damage caused to the environment.

The widespread pollution caused by cigarette leachate reflects the failure of people's environmental awareness: it is impossible for people to remain unaware of its chemical impacts on ecosystems, but most people choose to ignore it. The project focuses on expressing the huge number of discarded cigarette butts and the visualization of cigarette butt leachate pollution. It aims to make the invisible ecological threat brought by cigarette butt leachate visible, in order to express the unknown damage caused by cigarette leachate to the environment.

¹:Green, D.S., Boots, B., Da Silva Carvalho, J., and Starkey, T., 2019. Cigarette butts have adverse effects on initial growth of perennial ryegrass (gramineae: Lolium perenne L.) and white clover (leguminosae: Trifolium repens L.). Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0147651319307481.