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Challenges on the recycling of cigarette butts

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Abstract

Cigarette butt (CB) is a crucial litter in urban communities because it may contain various toxicants. Due to serious limitations on incinerating or landfilling CB, recycling of this hazardous waste is essential. The objective of this study was to investigate the most important challenges in CB collection and recycling. To this end, a search was done on Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science by defining a search protocol and identifying appropriate keywords. At the end of the screening process, 52 appropriate papers were selected. In this review, all methods for the CB recycling were considered. This review showed that nine categorizations of different products have been produced from the recycling of CBs, but three important challenges were identified for the recycling of this hazardous waste. It should be noted that finding solutions to these challenges may be helpful in better management of CB as a toxic litter.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the Research Center for Environmental Health Technology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, for supporting and funding this research (Grant Number: 98-2-2-15471).

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

Funding

The financial support given by the Research Center for Environmental Health Technology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (Grant Number: 98-2-2-15471).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Environmental Health Technology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mahmood Yousefi, Majid Kermani, Mahdi Farzadkia & Javad Torkashvand

  2. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mahmood Yousefi, Majid Kermani, Mahdi Farzadkia & Javad Torkashvand

  3. Environmental Health Research Center, Research Institute for Health Development, Kurdestan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran

    Kazem Godini

Authors
  1. Mahmood Yousefi
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  2. Majid Kermani
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  5. Javad Torkashvand
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Contributions

Mahmood Yousefi: investigation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing. Majid Kermani, Kazem Godini, and Mahdi Farzadkia: writing—review and editing. Javad Torkashvand: writing—original draft, supervision, review, and editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Javad Torkashvand.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Yousefi, M., Kermani, M., Farzadkia, M. et al. Challenges on the recycling of cigarette butts. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 30452–30458 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14058-3

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