Baltimore files ‘first of its kind’ lawsuit against tobacco companies for cigarette filter waste

Baltimore City and Mayor Brandon Scott announced Monday that they had jointly filed a lawsuit against tobacco companies in an effort to recover money Baltimore spends cleaning up discarded cigarette butts. Millions of littered cigarette filters pollute Baltimore’s water and soil, the city said in the suit filed in the Circuit Court of Baltimore City. Since May 2014, trash wheels have collected more than 12 million cigarette filters from Baltimore’s waterways, the city said.