Shannon Dougherty is absolutely giddy that, on a pole outside the Fishtown bar she owns, there’s a small metal box that’s the latest tool in her personal war on litter.  “There are so many problems in the world right now that are so complicated,” said Dougherty, the owner of Cedar Point Bar & Kitchen. “This just seems like an easy one to fix. The 19-inch rectangular receptacle is called a TerraCycle “zero waste” box. Installed in February by the Fishtown Neighbors Association, the box can hold hundreds of cigarette butts before they’re shipped to New Jersey, where they will be processed and recycled into such things as ashtrays, fence posts, industrial supplies, and park benches.

If you have ever mourned the number of cigarette butts littering your local streets, take heart that they can actually be used as a resource to produce new products—and you can get involved. TerraCycle is a New Jersey-based firm that has been doing great things for over ten years, specializing in recycling the “unrecyclable”, including plastic packaging, diapers, and cigarette butts.

If you have ever mourned the number of cigarette butts littering your local streets, take heart that they can actually be used as a resource to produce new products—and you can get involved. TerraCycle is a New Jersey-based firm that has been doing great things for over ten years, specializing in recycling the “unrecyclable”, including plastic packaging, diapers, and cigarette butts.

When it comes to litter, cigarette butts are the bane of a street cleaner's existence. So the Easton Ambassadors have launched a program that will help smokers not only keep the sidewalks tidy, but will keep the butts out of landfills and help the city convert them into cash.

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.