Turning Cigarette Butts Into Jeans & Jackets

By Giulia Lallas

Trillions of cigarette butts are thrown on the ground each year, with some studies claiming that cigarettes are the world’s most littered item. Unfortunately, standard cigarettes nowadays contain a plastic filter, leading to an increased buildup of microplastics around the planet. With that considered, a single cigarette butt can take years to decompose. 

So what can we do about it? Some companies such as Greenbutts are exploring the creation of green cigarette filters, while others resorted to turning cigarettes into street furniture or park benches. Two companies have even decided to turn this cigarette phenomenon into a fashionable one. And they may just be the coolest clothing initiatives ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VxMwKETtUg

Enter: Lee Cooper India & Cigarette Jeans

Lee Cooper India made its mark in the fabric industry by creating teddy bears with cigarette stuffing. The brand and its network of partners collect cigarettes off the streets of India, scan them for harmful metals, and then put them through a purifying process to separate the usable material from the tobacco. The tobacco is then sent to a farm to be composted while the ‘cotton’ is spun and turned into teddy bear stuffing, mosquito repellent–and most recently, jeans. 

The first ever cigarette jeans were launched in April of this year and marketed with the tagline “we don’t wanna make these jeans” on the brand’s Instagram. This phrase highlights the extreme severity cigarette pollution levels have reached. 600 cigarettes are required to make one pair of jeans. To showcase these jeans, the brand hosted an event with their new autumn collection featuring the jeans as the star. After the fact, the jeans gained traction in the media. Karan Kundra, a beloved Bollywood actor, was among the many praising the jeans at the event.

Lee Cooper India begins by picking up as many cigarettes as possible (approximately 100 billion cigarettes are scattered on the streets of India each year). After the cigarettes are treated thoroughly and woven into denim, the jeans undergo performance tests to ensure their durability and quality meet industry standards. 

These stylish pants also feature recycled paper tags, back patches crafted using wooden cork, and non-toxic buttons and trims. Denim production is notorious for using huge amounts of water, as one pair of jeans uses up to 7,500 liters, equivalent to how much you’d drink during the timespan of 5-6 years. The brand keeps this in mind as lower water usage is among its top priorities. 

It is unclear, however, whether the jeans are sold only in stores in India or also online because the brand’s wholesale partner, AJIO, does not appear to list them. The brand also doesn’t mention its exact jean-dying process, but it does declare that no harmful chemicals are used. Industrial dying is harsh on the environment and surrounding workers–although alternative practices are arising.

Next Up: French Startup TchaoMégot & Cigarette-Insulated Jackets

French company TchaoMégot hasn’t gone denim with its recycled cigarette clothing line. Instead, it's put its energy towards creating jackets with insulation made from cigarettes. Its vegan jackets contain insulation created by—you guessed it—recycled cigarette butts. And if you had any doubts about being kept warm by a bunch of tiny sticks, the company also uses that same insulation for buildings.

TchaoMégot also has specific collection cylinders around the streets to encourage smokers to place their cigarettes there rather than toss them on the ground. The cylinder’s cigarettes are collected by specialist transporters all over France and are available on the brand website for anyone interested or wanting to participate in the movement. 

The baton is then passed over to TchaoMégot employees working in-house to decontaminate the collected cigarette butts using an eco-friendly process, free of harsh chemicals and excess water. It uses sustainable tech to create a closed-loop system. Tobacco, ash, and leaves are set aside for composting, and toxic filters are removed. A natural solvent is added to remove toxins and odors from the filter. 

The remaining material is then hard-pressed and turned into insulation fiber. Interestingly, to create one jacket, 3,200 cigarettes are needed. The jackets are available for pre-order on the brand’s website. 

Photo Courtesy of TchaoMégot

Final Thoughts

Seemingly harmless cigarette butts laid out on the streets around your city are not as innocent as they seem. They can become neighborhood locals for years to come. Their toxins and microplastics are detrimental to the planet as they can pollute oceans and harm marine life. These facts make initiatives like cigarette-insulated jackets and cigarette-butt jeans fundamental to skewing the negative effects of cigarette-driven pollution. In essence, both brands are pioneers in the industry, and will hopefully inspire other companies to follow suit.

The industry is slowly changing, as the continuous influx of new sustainable fabrics like bananatex, piñatex, apple leather, citrus yarn, mushroom leather, sugarcane, grape leather, algae textile, and now cigarette fabric is leading the fashion industry towards green innovation and away from fast fashion. Even invasive plants are being doubled as fashion champions–a trend that could help save ecosystems everywhere. 

Fighting climate change and planet degradation with your clothes is pretty epic. Investing in quality pieces, prolonging the lives of the clothes you already have, creating a capsule wardrobe, swapping clothes with friends, and buying from or volunteering with carbon-negative initiatives like the ones described above are the keys to obtaining a more sustainable wardrobe. 

All in all, wearing cigarettes is way cooler than littering them.