Past campaignAugust 2025

Youth Voices for a Tobacco-Free and Plastic-Free Future

Youth organizations called for the elimination of all types of cigarette filters, the exclusion of tobacco industry interests from plastics negotiations, and accountability for tobacco pollution.

About the Campaign

GYV connected International Youth Day 2025 with the resumed fifth session of negotiations for a global plastics treaty, known as INC-5.2. The campaign brought youth concerns about tobacco pollution into discussions on how to prevent plastic pollution and hold polluters accountable.

At the center of the campaign is a call to eliminate all cigarette filters, including those promoted as biodegradable or environmentally friendly. Replacing the material does not meet that demand. GYV also calls for tobacco companies to bear responsibility for their pollution and for negotiations and environmental policy to remain free from their influence. Working with youth and environmental partners, the campaign connects these positions with the WHO FCTC and the need for health and environmental protections to support one another.

Campaign Strategy

Objectives

  • Bring tobacco pollution and cigarette filters into the global plastics treaty debate.
  • Protect negotiations and environmental policy from tobacco industry interference.
  • Advance accountability for the costs of tobacco pollution.

Key Messages

  • Eliminate all cigarette filters. Replacing plastic filters with other materials does not answer the campaign’s call to end filters altogether.
  • Keep the tobacco industry out. Negotiations and environmental decisions must be protected from industry interests.
  • Make polluters pay. Tobacco companies should bear responsibility for the pollution they cause.
  • Reject greenwashing. Industry cleanups and producer-responsibility schemes must not become routes to policy influence.
  • Connect environmental and health protections. A plastics treaty should support the WHO FCTC and protect future generations.

Progress & Updates

This section records campaign outputs, institutional responses, and verified developments as the campaign progresses.
August 6

Youth take their demands to plastics negotiators

In a joint letter dated 6 August, GYV, the Children and Youth Major Group to UNEP, Hidden Plastic, and River Warrior Indonesia urged INC-5.2 negotiators to eliminate all cigarette filters and hold the industry accountable for its pollution. UNEP published the letter among the session’s official correspondence, making the youth appeal available alongside other submissions.
August

The appeal spreads through youth networks and the media

The Children and Youth Major Group circulated the letter to approximately 7,000 recipients. GMA News, The Freeman and BOTOX News Online Sorsogon covered the youth appeal, while campaign posts generated 13,381 views and reached 6,882 accounts across the tracked social media activity. Organizations sharing the youth appeal included ASEAN Youth Organization, IFMSA, A Non Smoking Generation, HAPI–Green Movement, San Beda Economics Society and Green Mind International.
August 26

Youth keep attention on tobacco pollution

Following the negotiations, IYTC shared the campaign’s message in an article published by GGTC: eliminating cigarette filters must include every material, including those marketed as environmentally friendly.
Read more: Youth keep attention on tobacco pollution
August

Challenging tobacco industry involvement in producer responsibility

GYV promoted a separate joint appeal with the Stop Tobacco Pollution Alliance, Smoke Free Partnership and Fair Resource Foundation on tobacco industry involvement in producer-responsibility schemes. The appeal received coverage in Euractiv, was published on GYV’s website and was shared by GGTC and the Coalition for Respiratory Health from Moldova.