As a former smoker, to me the only thing worse than the stale smoke smell that lingered in my hair and clothes was the stench of spent cigarette butts... Counted by piece, cigarette butts top the city’s litter list and are the second most common item found during shoreline cleanups. Many people don’t realize they can be recycled. Once or twice a week city crews empty the receptacles and the butts are shipped to TerraCycle’s recycling plant in Ontario.