- Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor
The Owen Sound Waste Watchers will be out on April 20 to raise awareness of the impact of single-use waste on Owen Sound, local waterways and our world - one coffee cup and cigarette butt at a time. Two events are scheduled for the day - a trash pick up and a "Talkin' Trash Social".
Meredith MacFarlane, a Grade 12 student at St. Mary’s High School, will help lead the trash pick-up event on Owen Sound's east harbour. Merdith's own interest in the environment has grown with her own life experiences. She became a vegan at 15, after learning about the impact of animal agriculture in a geography class. Working in a grocery store, she saw enormous daily waste first hand.
On April 1, Meredith made a presentation to Owen Sound City Council to inform them of the April 20th events, and invited Mayor Ian Boddy and all Councillors to join the group at one or both. “Reducing single use plastic and toxic waste is important to me because it is my, and future, generations who will have to deal with the consequences," she said in her presentation.
After the April 20 events, Meredith plans to report back to city council with the results , and hopes it will raise awareness and inspire conversations about further actions. When she goes off to Western to study Sociology in the fall, she expects the next cohort of high school students will continue the work.
Last fall a group of 15 concerned citizens organized a trash pick-up along Owen Sound's east harbour wall. In a few hours they had gathered 2,430 cigarette butts, 81 lbs of garbage and 28 lbs of recyclable material. The cigarettes were recycled through Terracycle, Inc, and recyclables and garbage were delivered to the Miller Waste Transfer Station.
The group learned more about the toxic impact of waste, especially discarded cigarette butts which are the most littered item in the world. In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a report about the impact of the tobacco industry on both health and the environment. “Tossing a cigarette butt on the ground has since become one of the most accepted forms of littering globally and borders on a social norm for many smokers”, the WHO said in its report, adding that around 680 million kilograms of tobacco waste litters the world each year.
The 2018 trash pick-up experience opened the eyes of many in the group and changed the way they operate in their personal lives. “I’m not a smoker but for me, it started with no take-out containers, moved to no straws, then to giving bamboo cutlery as Christmas gifts. It’s now moved to adjusting my food list to non-plastic-wrapped items and bringing my own bags to the store,” said Laura Wood, Owen Sound Waste Watcher community group facilitator.
Rochelle Byrne from A Greener Future is joining the April 20 events and will speak at the “Talkin’ Trash Social” at the Frog Ponds Café from 4:00pm to 6:00pm. Executive Director & Founder, Rochelle and her team work hand-in-hand with local communities to promote environmental preservation through organized litter cleanups, educational programs, and events. A Greener Future recently participated in the Green Living Show in Toronto, and is working with the City of Hamilton on the 5th Annual Butt Blitz scheduled for April 27, 2019.
“I’m especially pleased to be coming to beautiful Owen Sound to work with local citizens in reducing the toxic impact of waste near the harbour. I know we will learn from each other at the social event following the pick-up.”
People interested in participating in the 1:00pm to 3:00pm east harbour litter pick-up can register at www.agreenerfuture/events or show up at the north side of the Grey Bruce Health Unit in Owen Sound.
For more information about the 4:00pm to 6:00pm Talkin’ Trash Social, visit the Owen Sound Waste Watchers event page on Facebook or email oswastewatchers@gmail.com. Entrance is by Pay What You Can donation and all are welcome.
Students take time to rid the university of cigarette butts.
The Center for Student Involvement (CSI) hosted its second annual Cigarette Butt Cleanup on March 27 at the university.
Students and other attendees participated by picking up cigarette butts around the plaza and across various locations on campus including the Engineering, Computer Science and Technology Building.
After signing up at the CSI booth, attendees were provided paper bags and began searching for cigarette butts.
Tables filled with snacks and goodies were available for participants, which included: eco-friendly bamboo toothbrushes, reusable straws, notepads and reusable ziplock bags. Participants were also given a free acai bowl after volunteering.
According to the Lola, Salgado, the event organizer, the cigarette butts collected will then be shipped to TerraCycle, a recycling company where the cigarette butts will be separated into organic and inorganic materials and recycled into park benches or glasses.
The idea for the clean-up event began when CSI took students on trips with local nonprofits who helped pick up trash. Unfortunately, because of class schedule restrictions, attendance was low.
From there, CSI decided to create their own cigarette butt cleanup on campus. Since Cal State LA’s initiative to become a smoke-free campus back in fall 2017, there has been less littering around campus, but there are still places around the university grounds that have this issue.
“Before, there were a lot of cigarette butts in front of the Student Union, like where you can sit down. But now, since the campus is smoke-free, it’s like they’re still there. Across the street is where I find a lot more now”, said Salgado in reference to the crosswalk that leads to the Television, Film and Media Center.
During the first clean up, 5,676 cigarette butts were collected with the help of 40 volunteers. For its second clean up, Salgado hopes to find less litter since the campus has been smoke free for the last two years. By organizing this event, Salgado hopes that she has helped create awareness about littering on campus.
“When you walk around campus or anywhere, you don’t really notice the little things, but once you take some time out of your day to pick up trash and you’re like ‘oh my god there’s so many’, you’ll notice them for a long time.”
ATLANTA (FOX 5 Atlanta) - According to the EPA, the average American produces close to six pounds of trash a day, and only a fraction of that gets recycled. Here's how you an give those things a second life.
Let's start with cell phones. How many do you have stuffed in a drawer? The EPA, again, says fewer than 20 percent are recycled. If you do it, you can help victims of domestic violence through Cellular Recycler and to help active-duty military and vets through a program called "Cell Phones for Soldiers."
Eyeglasses. I have so many of these lying around because, well, I wear glasses not contaccts. Donate them, non-perscription sunglasses, too, because they go to help folks around the world to see. Check out New Eyes for the Needy, a non-profit with a goal to help the poor see.
Same with hearing aids. My daughter wears one so this interests me. The Starkey Hearing Foundation wants this one when my kid outgrows it. It can go to someone without the resources to buy one.
Running shoes. Nike has a re-use program called Re-Use a Shoe Program that accepts old sneakers to make ball courts.
Inhalers. I have these, too. I usually toss these asthma aids into the garbage. Well, don't. Ask your pharmacist if her pharmacy recycles.
Batteries. Do not throw these things away. Check to see if your office has a program for single-use batteries. Many do. Ours does. Many retailers like Home Depot take the re-useable ones.
A few cosmetics lines want your empties. If you use Lush,Mac, Avedaand Kiehl's, save your pots and containers.
Greeting cards. St. Jude's Ranch for Children takes your new and used ones. They recycle and make new ones. Although, one hiccup: They can't take Hallmark, Disney or American Greetings, according to their website, for copyright reasons.
Finally, those juice pouches and other things that come in pouches. A group called "Terra Cycle" wants them. And cigarette butts, too. Yeah, they make new things from those.
Don't overwhelm yourself. It's like dieting. Just make one small change at a time so that you create a new habit, not a new chore. Start with those pouches for juice and laundry pods. Toss them in a bucket until full then recycle. And before you toss out anything now, take to your keyboard and see if there is a way to re-use it before you put it in the garbage can.
A local business owner has made a proposal to Sioux Lookout Municipal Council which would help clean up the community and generate funds to improve the town for everyone at the same time.
At Council’s February 20 regular meeting, Drayton Cash and Carry owner Dorothy Broderick informed Council about TerraCycle Canada’s cigarette butt recycling program.
Broderick said, “When I purchased my pocket ashtrays (available at her store), the individual I purchased them from actually put me onto them… when he started talking about recycling your butts, I wanted to find out more about that.”
“TerraCycle is a recycling company based out of the US and also has a company in Canada,” Broderick informed. “They have quite a number of recycling streams that they run. The premise behind it is to get some of the litter off the streets, out of the garbage and into recycling where it’s actually being processed properly. Because they’re a recycling company themselves, they’re using these products.”
“This particular stream is cigarette butts. They recycle the packaging, the foil, the butts, paper, any leftover tobacco gets composted. They use the whole thing. The filters contain plastics and they’re generally littered. For one, because they are really unsightly, and two, they have a value to them… if people would not put them on the ground, if they put them into a recycling program, those butts could be reused, then they would have value instead of just another piece of unsightly litter on the ground.”
Broderick has purchased three metal collection containers which she proposed be placed in the following locations, “At the top of the road by Northway Cemetery where the hospital staff and patients go to smoke. Another would be the Rec Centre where all kinds of people are in and out who smoke; the library bench where people hang out, they could put their butts in there.”
The metal butt collection containers cost $100 each.
“For every three pounds of butts, $1 goes back to the community... So something like the Umfreville Trail, where there is no user fees; there’s no revenue coming from it. I thought rather than taxation supplying that (funds to make repairs to the trail), we need to start looking at different ways of doing things and this could be one of those ways. While it’s not going to create a ton of money, every bit counts,” she explained.
Broderick said she would donate the three metal butt collection containers she purchased to the Municipality, along with proposing locations for them. She further informed she would go around and empty those containers.
“I’ll be doing the emptying for the first little while and the goal is, if the program is successful and the Municipality finds it worthwhile to invest in, the Municipality then takes it over and they begin the collection,” she said.
Other locations she proposed adding additional metal butt collection containers include the Airport, the hostels, and local parks and beaches.
She added, “Ideally, businesses, if they wish to participate, would buy their own collection (unit) or provide their own collection, so as long as it has the ability to handle a burnable, than its fine. A metal pail full of sand works just as well as a fancy ashtray. Because butts are recyclable, there’s no need for them to be on the ground.”
Another idea she shared was, “If people are participating in the (annual spring) Pitch-In Program, perhaps they would consider carrying a second bag and rather than putting everything into one bag, put cigarette butts in one bag and garbage in the other.”
She informed that other communities who are running the butt collection program, such as Thunder Bay, are finding it quite successful.
Her proposal was well received by Municipal council with several council members commending her on the proposal.
Direction was given by Council to Municipal staff to speak further with Broderick and prepare a report for them on this matter.
“I liked that they felt positive about it and have turned it back to staff to look into,” Broderick concluded. “I think that this council seems to be dedicated to cleaning up and the CAO is really receptive to new ideas and getting things going for the betterment of the community.”
One of my favorite discoveries in this fascinating world of green innovation is the company Terracycle. Simply put, founder and Princeton-dropout Tom Szaky recycles the unrecyclable. You can participate by signing up for different recycling collection programs, collecting your waste, and then shipping it back to Terracycle.
Recycling Butts? Yes You Can! TerraCycle, working with the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, turns cigarette waste into industrial products such as plastic pallets. They accept butts, filters, loose tobacco pouches, outer plastic packaging, inner foil packaging, rolling paper and ash.
Cigarette butts are widely considered to be the world’s number one litter problem. Cleanup projects at beaches gather twice as many cigarette parts as either food wrappers or beverage containers. New York State produces about 1.5 million tons of cigarette butts each year.
Our Cigarette Recycling program takes used Cigarette butts and turns them into products for industrial use like plastic lumber. In this video you get to see the process of Cigarette recycling.
TRENTON, N.J. (WPVI) --A recycling company in Trenton is collecting millions of discarded cigarettes in an effort to turn them into something reusable. Discarded cigarette butts: they seem to be everywhere, littering the streets.
Cigarette butts are, by some counts, the world’s number one litter problem.
Butts represent the most numerous form of trash that volunteers collect from the world's beaches on the Ocean Conservancy’s cleanup days.
- Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor
The Owen Sound Waste Watchers will be out on April 20 to raise awareness of the impact of single-use waste on Owen Sound, local waterways and our world - one coffee cup and cigarette butt at a time. Two events are scheduled for the day - a trash pick up and a "Talkin' Trash Social".
Meredith MacFarlane, a Grade 12 student at St. Mary’s High School, will help lead the trash pick-up event on Owen Sound's east harbour. Merdith's own interest in the environment has grown with her own life experiences. She became a vegan at 15, after learning about the impact of animal agriculture in a geography class. Working in a grocery store, she saw enormous daily waste first hand.
On April 1, Meredith made a presentation to Owen Sound City Council to inform them of the April 20th events, and invited Mayor Ian Boddy and all Councillors to join the group at one or both. “Reducing single use plastic and toxic waste is important to me because it is my, and future, generations who will have to deal with the consequences," she said in her presentation.
After the April 20 events, Meredith plans to report back to city council with the results , and hopes it will raise awareness and inspire conversations about further actions. When she goes off to Western to study Sociology in the fall, she expects the next cohort of high school students will continue the work.
Last fall a group of 15 concerned citizens organized a trash pick-up along Owen Sound's east harbour wall. In a few hours they had gathered 2,430 cigarette butts, 81 lbs of garbage and 28 lbs of recyclable material. The cigarettes were recycled through Terracycle, Inc, and recyclables and garbage were delivered to the Miller Waste Transfer Station.
The group learned more about the toxic impact of waste, especially discarded cigarette butts which are the most littered item in the world. In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a report about the impact of the tobacco industry on both health and the environment. “Tossing a cigarette butt on the ground has since become one of the most accepted forms of littering globally and borders on a social norm for many smokers”, the WHO said in its report, adding that around 680 million kilograms of tobacco waste litters the world each year.
The 2018 trash pick-up experience opened the eyes of many in the group and changed the way they operate in their personal lives. “I’m not a smoker but for me, it started with no take-out containers, moved to no straws, then to giving bamboo cutlery as Christmas gifts. It’s now moved to adjusting my food list to non-plastic-wrapped items and bringing my own bags to the store,” said Laura Wood, Owen Sound Waste Watcher community group facilitator.
Rochelle Byrne from A Greener Future is joining the April 20 events and will speak at the “Talkin’ Trash Social” at the Frog Ponds Café 
from 4:00pm to 6:00pm. Executive Director & Founder, Rochelle and her team work hand-in-hand with local communities to promote environmental preservation through organized litter cleanups, educational programs, and events. A Greener Future recently participated in the Green Living Show in Toronto, and is working with the City of Hamilton on the 5th Annual Butt Blitz scheduled for April 27, 2019.
“I’m especially pleased to be coming to beautiful Owen Sound to work with local citizens in reducing the toxic impact of waste near the harbour. I know we will learn from each other at the social event following the pick-up.”
People interested in participating in the 1:00pm to 3:00pm east harbour litter pick-up can register at www.agreenerfuture/events or show up at the north side of the Grey Bruce Health Unit in Owen Sound.
For more information about the 4:00pm to 6:00pm Talkin’ Trash Social, visit the Owen Sound Waste Watchers event page on Facebook or email oswastewatchers@gmail.com. Entrance is by Pay What You Can donation and all are welcome.
Students and other attendees participated by picking up cigarette butts around the plaza and across various locations on campus including the Engineering, Computer Science and Technology Building.
After signing up at the CSI booth, attendees were provided paper bags and began searching for cigarette butts.
Tables filled with snacks and goodies were available for participants, which included: eco-friendly bamboo toothbrushes, reusable straws, notepads and reusable ziplock bags. Participants were also given a free acai bowl after volunteering.
According to the Lola, Salgado, the event organizer, the cigarette butts collected will then be shipped to TerraCycle, a recycling company where the cigarette butts will be separated into organic and inorganic materials and recycled into park benches or glasses.
The idea for the clean-up event began when CSI took students on trips with local nonprofits who helped pick up trash. Unfortunately, because of class schedule restrictions, attendance was low.
From there, CSI decided to create their own cigarette butt cleanup on campus. Since Cal State LA’s initiative to become a smoke-free campus back in fall 2017, there has been less littering around campus, but there are still places around the university grounds that have this issue.
“Before, there were a lot of cigarette butts in front of the Student Union, like where you can sit down. But now, since the campus is smoke-free, it’s like they’re still there. Across the street is where I find a lot more now”, said Salgado in reference to the crosswalk that leads to the Television, Film and Media Center.
During the first clean up, 5,676 cigarette butts were collected with the help of 40 volunteers. For its second clean up, Salgado hopes to find less litter since the campus has been smoke free for the last two years. By organizing this event, Salgado hopes that she has helped create awareness about littering on campus.
“When you walk around campus or anywhere, you don’t really notice the little things, but once you take some time out of your day to pick up trash and you’re like ‘oh my god there’s so many’, you’ll notice them for a long time.”