Reduce post-consumer waste
We understand that our product proposition needs to address both the health impacts of our products, as well as their environmental impact. To address the latter, we strive to embed principles of eco-design and circularity in our products. We also implement effective post-consumer waste management solutions to prevent littering and promote the responsible disposal of products at end-of-life.
REDUCE POST-CONSUMER WASTE
Reduce post-consumer waste and prevent littering by implementing comprehensive programs covering all our consumables.
Follow eco-design and circularity principles for all smoke-free electronic devices.
Key performance indicators to track our progress
Reduce post-consumer waste and prevent littering by implementing comprehensive programs covering all our consumables
We significantly expanded anti-littering programs for cigarette butts to cover 92 percent of sales volumes in 2024. End-of-life take-back programs for smoke-free consumables covered 21.5 percent of sales volumes by year-end, progressing slower than expected in high-volume markets.*
* Shipment volume includes heated tobacco units, e-vapor cartridges, and disposable vaping devices. See PMI’s Sustainability KPI Protocol 2024 for further details.
Follow eco-design and circularity principles for all smoke-free electronic devices
In 2024, for the first time, we developed and published three pre-certified Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for IQOS ILUMA i devices, detailing their environmental impact. During the year we also implemented several eco-design requirements into select pilot projects.
Learn more about PMI’s Sustainability Index in our Integrated Report 2024. See the full performance metrics and related footnotes here.
The right thing to do
Reducing and appropriately managing post-consumer waste means we extract, convert, and use fewer raw materials from a planet with limited natural resources.
The business case
Many consumers consider the environmental impact of products and services in their purchase decisions.
Littering prevention and sustainability in the Nordics
My name is Anette Rosengren. I'm Managing Director for the Nordic business,
so that's Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.
Our vision is to make the Nordics smoke-free.
Coming to the challenges, our markets are very, very restrictive,
so we have a point-of-sale display ban in four out of five markets.
So our ability to communicate with [legal-age] consumers is limited.
Because we know that legal-age smokers want to understand if there are alternatives.
So our biggest challenge is actually to create awareness.
By creating awareness about alternatives
it's easier for the legal-age smokers to make a better choice.
So if I give you another example of the highly restricted markets around us,
is that in 2019,
the Swedish government decided to put a law in place to ban outdoor smoking.
So you're not allowed to smoke in a restaurant, at a festival or actually at the bus stop.
They wanted to protect people from secondhand smoke, so the intentions were good,
but this meant they were removing all ashtrays from the public space,
and this led to an increase in butt littering,
because you didn't remove the smokers.
You only removed the butts from the ashtrays to the streets.
We started to work together with the municipalities,
and also with an NGO anti-littering organization,
in order to address this issue with the smokers,
in order to make sure that we reduce the butt littering.
When it comes to our sustainability mission,
we can see today that now we have these pocket ashtrays,,
we worked together with our retailers, so our customers, in order to improve sustainability.
I think by that we will actually reach a lot of legal-age smokers to change their habits.,
So if I get to the second part with concrete examples, our e-cigarette.,
And when we had a focus group with Finnish consumers before the launch, they were asking us, "So what am I going to do with this plastic?",
At all sites where we are selling VEEV, you can also actually deposit the plastic.
So from the beginning we are creating a circular business model.
When we talk about the aspirational targets for us in the Nordics,
the most aspirational is of course to create a smoke-free Nordics.
That's the number one.
Youth access prevention is also a very important program for us.
And thirdly, of course the waste management.
I've been giving you examples on circular and also on anti-littering and pocket ashtrays.
Working with behavioral scientists to change attitudes toward littering
Piano music starts
Pia Prestmo’s voiceover starts:
We decided to go with mind shift because
there are well-renowned scientists,
behavioral scientists that have worked
Pia Prestmo, Manager External Affairs at Philip Morris Norway, talks to camera:
...on litter before and they've done
research on behalf of both the authorities
and other private companies.
Jørgen Dalen, Behavioral Scientist at Mindshift, speaks to camera:
The benefits of our cooperation with the
PMI is that they give us a chance to conduct
experiments so we are pretty sure about
the real effects of these measures.
The experiments work really well,
Especially the footsteps on the ground.
I think it's the most effective measure we have ever
seen on littering
You always have to think about
motivation and what drives people in
order to make a proper behavior design.
Ida Kopperstad, Behavioral Scientist at Mindshift, speaks to camera:
Our techniques are based on research and
studies about human behavior and how to
trigger the right behavior at the right time.
Pia Prestmo, Manager External Affairs at Philip Morris Norway, talks to camera:
Well I think ballot bins are pretty well
known all over Europe and in Oslo, we
have them you know in every street corner.
but I just wanted to look into
how can you have smokers use them even
more to make them more a part of their everyday?
Jørgen Dalen, Behavioral Scientist at Mindshift, speaks to camera:
I think we now have the knowledge on how
to reduce the litter so now it's pretty
much up to the stakeholders to
to make these measures go through.
Pia Prestmo, Manager External Affairs at Philip Morris Norway, talks to camera:
I think that nobody can do this alone.
I think all good forces need to be joined
I'm talking about the authorities,
private companies, civil society,
we all need to do our part and we need to speak
together and you know align in order to
to have the good results that we all want to have.
When we started this project I did
expect nudging to have an effect,
but not such a great effect.
I was astonished.”
Words on screen read:
Mindshift study results: 145% usage increase with nudging and prompts about the bins’ purpose.
20% bin usage increase when adding further messages to capture attention.
Philip Morris International logo is seen on screen.
Music ends
PMI collaborates with Cortexia to analyze litter
Music starts
Voiceover begins
At PMI, we know the importance of working with experts in order to grow in a
more sustainable and responsible way. And this is why we are always looking for companions
to better understand and meet the challenges ahead. In 2017, we started working with Cortexia
to analyze litter, how much there is, of which type, and the measures that most efficiently
reduce litter. Cortexia is a project that combines artificial intelligence
and sustainability. Our technology allows us to monitor the streets and quantify litter
in real time.
Andréas von Kaenel, CEO of Cortexia, speaks to camera:
We help the city to improve the efficiency on cleaning resources,
including special emphasis on cigarette butts.
Voiceover speaks:
This new technology helps to
understand an old problem by showing which waste is littered where and when.
Andréas von Kaenel, CEO of Cortexia, voiceover speaks:
Partnering with PMI was a qualitative leap for us to develop certain technologies that allow us
to move towards a clean and sustainable future, not only in cities but also in seas and beaches.
Jens Rupp, Manager of Environmental Sustainability, Philip Morris International, speaks to camera:
We are aware that we can play a crucial role in changing people's habits.
We want to be the one to promote that change. We must be.
Andréas von Kaenel, CEO of Cortexia, voiceover speaks:
Many cities have already used our technology to improve their litter rejection programs.
By being more effective in reducing cigarette butts here,
we will avoid pollution there.
Cortexia offers us the possibility to quantify an anti-littering campaign success by evaluating
whether cigarette butt littering is reduced as a result of specific actions and by how much.
Jens Rupp, Manager of Environmental Sustainability, Philip Morris International, speaks to camera:
These insights are incredibly useful for us.
Andréas von Kaenel, CEO of Cortexia, speaks to camera:
Together we have developed new tools which allows us to move forward.
We even use drones to measure litter.
Voiceover speaks:
Every new partnership helps our efforts and increases our effectiveness to protect the environment.
Logos appear on screen for Philip Morris Internation and Cortexia.
The words: Working together appears alongside them.
Music ends.
PMI and Litterati: Working together
Instrumental music starts
Voiceover starts:
Litterati is an organization dedicated to
the prevention of litter we use
Jeff Kirschner, Founder and CEO of Litterati, speaks to camera:
...technology to engage people and then use
the collected data to drive smarter
litter prevention strategies.
Dick Ayres, Cofounder and Chief Strategy Officer at Litterati, speaks to camera:
We started taking a photograph on Instagram and now
we've developed a platform which
connects people allows us to analyze
data and to uncover insights and patterns.
Jeff Kirschner, Founder and CEO of Litterati, speaks to camera:
The type of litter item as well
as where and when it's picked up are all
recorded for analysis.
Jens Rupp, Head of Environmental Sustainability at Philip Morris International, speaks to camera:
Litterati is one of the world's leading
experts and actors on anti-littering.
Jeff Kirschner, Founder and CEO of Litterati, speaks to camera:
We can empower people with the tools to be part of the solution.
Voiceover speaks:
The data is taken from the application
so just by taking a photograph we can
extract from that photograph the bottles,
the cans, the cigarette butts, that are in it,
they're geo-located.
We can understand
concentrations we can understand where
hot spots are.
Jeff Kirschner, Founder and CEO of Litterati, speaks to camera:
From identifying every cigarette butt or
piece of plastic on a city street to
locating illegal dog sites.
Voiceover continues:
and understanding that helps us find solutions to
how this littering can be reduced over time.
Jens Rupp, Head of Environmental Sustainability at Philip Morris International, speaks to camera:
they have a fantastic consumer-facing
app an application that can be used to
generate engagement and they also have
presence in many countries.
So working together allows us
to reach more people, to engage more
people than we could ever have dreamt of otherwise.
We're working with Litterati and also Carto,
one of the world's leading geo-analysts to develop a little
monitoring baseline in all the countries
where we operate.
This in turn will allow us to define
better programs,
more effective programs to change
behavior across the world.
Jeff Kirschner, Founder and CEO of Litterati, speaks to camera:
We can be a data driven decision tool
for every city in the world,
engaging a global community to be part
of the solution.
Jens Rupp, Head of Environmental Sustainability at Philip Morris International, speaks to camera:
We have a 2025 target to reduce by 50 percent
the plastic litter from our product,
this is an immensely ambitious target.
Jeff Kirschner, Founder and CEO of Litterati, speaks to camera:
I'm an optimist. I believe that in 10 years
we will be fast approaching the true end to litter.
Words appear on screen reading:
Philip Morris International, Litterati, Working together.
Music ends.
Looking ahead
This online content about our Integrated Report should be read in conjunction with PMI’s Integrated Report 2024. This report includes metrics that are subject to uncertainties due to inherent limitations in the nature and methods for data collection and measurement. The precision of different collection and measurement techniques may also vary. This report includes data or information obtained from external sources or third parties. Unless otherwise indicated, the data contained herein cover our operations worldwide for the full calendar year 2024 or reflect the status as of December 31, 2024. Where not specified, data comes from PMI financials, nonfinancials, or estimates.
Unless explicitly stated, the data, information, and aspirations in this report do not incorporate PMI’s wellness and healthcare business, Aspeya. Regarding the Swedish Match acquisition, completed late 2022, unless otherwise indicated, this report includes information pertaining to its sustainability performance. Please also refer to "This report at a glance" on page 2 of the PMI’s Integrated Report 2024 for more information. Aspirational targets and goals do not constitute financial projections, and achievement of future results is subject to risks, uncertainties and inaccurate assumptions, as outlined in our forward-looking and cautionary statements on page 206. In PMI’s Integrated Report 2024 and in related communications, the terms “materiality,” “material,” and similar terms are defined in the referenced sustainability standards and are not meant to correspond to the concept of materiality under the U.S. securities laws and/or disclosures required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.