Our Story
Our mission here at 1235 Smokes is to spread the love, joy, and peace that we experience in this life by providing environmentally friendly smoking solutions. When you shop with 1235 Smokes, you are contributing to a greener future: not only are you using environmentally friendly filter tips; 3% of all profits are donated towards intentional reforestation efforts.
1235 Smokes was founded with the original intention of protecting the earth and human beings from the most littered item on our planet - smoking filters. These filters are not only an unpleasant presence, but they contain materials such as tar and cellulose acetate that leak into the ecosystem, causing damage to plants, animals, and water sources. To add fuel to the fire (or to cause the fire itself), littered filters are one of the leading causes of home fire deaths each year, with over 500 deaths of smokers and non-smokers being attributed to smoking.
Our filters provide a way to use an environmentally friendly, reusable material that promotes a positive smoking setting and proper disposal of ignited materials. The high-grade stabilized silicone used in our filters is non-toxic, recyclable, and does not break down into smaller components (as plastics break into micro-plastics, or cellulose acetate breaks into particulates), making them human, earth, and ocean friendly. They ultimate key to our filters is that they are reusable!
We also believe in the importance of having the proper set and setting in your smoke sessions. Our mentality and the space surrounding us are crucial factors that determine whether or not we are having a positive experience. Music plays a crucial role in both, so we created some playlists for you to enjoy during your smoke sessions or otherwise!
Smoke Session Tunes
Founder of 1235 Smokes - Manny Mezi
Manny went to school at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Living in Boulder, he had the gift of access to miles of trails within a five minute walk of where he was living at the time. Manny and his roommates had the habit of picking up litter if it was ever encountered it on trails because they hoped to maintain the beauty of the world wherever they could. The items that none of them would pick up were burnt roaches or cigarette butts because of the nature of their use - they interacted with people's mouths. As an engineer with a strong interest in chemistry, Manny consistently seeks out solutions to everyday issues that negatively impact our world, so reusable filter tips were on the list of solutions to help our environment.
Manny discovered that he could 3D print filter tips that were semi reusable and used an organically sourced material. It was a blast for him because he could add designs to the cross section of the 3D prints to make smoke sessions a bit more fun and positive with friends. Unfortunately, the 3D printed material used wasn't exactly safe for smoking.
While working separately as an engineer, Manny did his research and discovered that I could create custom designed filters out of non toxic silicone chemically stabilized by a stabilizing agent that had a plethora of benefits. Manny decided to pursue the design, at which point he wrote the patent with the help of a supervising attorney. Now, he's jumping on the opportunity to spread as much love and joy as possible through the medium of our filter tips at 1235!
