TerraCycle Inc. has created the Cigarette Waste Brigade, asking people to send their butts so they can be recycled into pellets used to make items such as park benches, shipping pallets and railroad ties. Hold on to your butts … cigarette, that is. New Mexico-based Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., a subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc., the nation's second-largest cigarette maker, and TerraCycle Inc. are partnering to recycle cigarette butts into pellets used to make such items as park benches, shipping pallets and railroad ties. The Cigarette Waste Brigade is asking people to save and collect their butts, sending them to the recycling company through a prepaid shipping label. For every pound of cigarette waste sent to Trenton, N.J.-based TerraCycle, the sender will receive 100 TerraCycle points, which can be redeemed for a variety of charitable gifts, or for a payment of 1 cent per point to the charity of their choice, according to TerraCycle's website. The company will recycle the filters into pellets used to make a number of items, including ashtrays. The paper and tobacco also will be composted. It took nearly two years to develop the process to recycle the butts, made of paper, tobacco, ash and a filter from cellulose acetate. Cigarette refuse accounted for 38% of all U.S. roadway litter, according to a 2009 study conducted by nonprofit Keep America Beautiful.

After a long two years of planning and tweaking, TerraCycle, the recognized leader in upcycling items that previously were considered non-recyclable, is now accepting used cigarette butts for its latest Brigade. This amazing project was the brainchild of TC’s founder Tom Szaky. Admittedly, many thought it was a bit harebrained but the company pursued the idea and has now launched the campaign. It’s yet another amazingly useful and easy way for consumers to help eliminate the variety of waste and trash that all too often ends up either in landfills or blowing across our streets and yards. So, if you’re a smoker or know someone who is, take a look at getting involved in this program. It’s a great way to earn money for your favorite charity and help keep the air cleaner for everyone.

Le collège lance une grande OPERATION RECUPERATION par l’intermédiaire de Terracycle (http://www.terracycle.fr).

L'entreprise TerraCycle, vient de mettre en place un projet pionnier dans le recyclage des déchets de tabac à priser, en développant une méthode de conversion des déchets des cigarettes tout en sensibilisant à l'élimination des filtres de cigarettes une fois consommés.

Cigarette butts are the most littered item in America and make up 38% of all trash on U.S. roadways, according to Keep America Beautiful. Annually, worldwide cigarette butt litter amounts to 1.69 billion pounds. TerraCycle Inc., a company devoted to creating recycling systems for hard-to-recycle waste, has teamed up with Sante Fe Natural Tobacco Co. to create an alternative to leaving cigarette butts on roadways or putting them into landfills. The tobacco company will sponsor TerraCycle's Cigarette Waste Brigade, which will allow individuals and groups to collect cigarette waste, print a prepaid shipping label and then mail the cigarettes to TerraCycle, where they will be turned into new products such as shipping pallets, railroad ties, plastic lumber and ash trays. TerraCycle's mission is to solve waste issues and eliminate the idea of waste, and cigarettes have been on their list of items to tackle for a long time. They believe that to solve waste problems, less desirable forms of waste such as cigarettes need to be dealt with, too. "We started out doing a lot of consumer packaging and we really wanted to take on some more serious issues. There is no more serious of an environmental issue when it comes to litter and waste than cigarette butts," Albe Zakes, Global VP of Media Relations for TerraCycle, told Earth911. The program is aimed to target cigarette waste in two ways. First, it will take aim at cigarette waste that has already been littered by working with anti-litter groups and beach clean-up efforts, since those people are already collecting trash and disposing of it in landfills. Second, the program will work with larger facilities like shopping malls, office parks, bars and other places where cigarettes are consumed in large numbers and responsibly discarded, Zakes explained. "Because of how many cigarettes are consumed and because of the rate of consumption, we do expect this to be a very, very impactful and patroned program." Zakes said. "The goal is to collect hundreds of millions of butts, if not more. We want to make a dent. Unless you're collecting hundreds of millions of butts, you're not making a dent." Those age 21 or older who are interested in getting involved can visit TerraCycle's website to sign up for the brigad

RICHMOND, Va. — A subsidiary of the nation's second-largest cigarette maker Reynolds American Inc. is funding a national recycling program to reward do-gooders for cleaning up tobacco waste and turn cigarette butts into pellets used to make items such as plastic shipping pallets, railroad ties and park benches. New Mexico-based Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., the maker of Natural American Spirit cigarettes, is teaming up with TerraCycle Inc. for the program.

A subsidiary of the nation's second-largest cigarette maker Reynolds American Inc. is funding a national recycling program to reward do-gooders for cleaning up tobacco waste and turn cigarette butts into pellets used to make items such as plastic shipping pallets, railroad ties and park benches. New Mexico-based Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., the maker of Natural American Spirit cigarettes, is teaming up with TerraCycle Inc. for the program. It aims to snuff out one of the most littered items in the U.S. that yields about 135 million pounds of cigarette butts annually that get tossed on roadways, thrown in the trash or put in public ashtrays.

RICHMOND, Va. — A subsidiary of the nation’s second-largest cigarette maker Reynolds American Inc. is funding a national recycling program to reward do-gooders for cleaning up tobacco waste and turn cigarette butts into pellets used to make items such as plastic shipping pallets, railroad ties and park benches. New Mexico-based Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., the maker of Natural American Spirit cigarettes, is teaming up with TerraCycle Inc. for the program. It aims to snuff out one of the most littered items in the U.S. that yields about 135 million pounds of cigarette butts annually and get tossed on roadways, thrown in the trash or put in public ashtrays. “You don’t have to walk or drive very far to see that smokers often discard cigarette waste in ways that litter the environment,” Santa Fe’s head of sales and marketing, Cressida Lozano, said in a statement. The cost of the company’s sponsorship that will be officially announced Thursday was not disclosed. Through the Cigarette Waste Brigade program, organizations as well as people over the age of 21 can collect cigarette waste and send them to TerraCycle through a prepaid shipping label. Once received, participants will get credits that will be donated to Keep America Beautiful, a nonprofit community action and education organization. They’ll receive about $1 per pound of litter, which equals about 1,000 cigarette butts. TerraCycle, based in Trenton, N.J., will then recycle the filters into pellets used to make a number of items, including ashtrays. The paper and tobacco also will be composted. The company took nearly two years to develop the process to recycle cigarette butts, which are comprised of paper, tobacco, ash, and a filter made from cellulose acetate. TerraCycle CEO and founder Tom Szaky said the program provides a solution for the filters that are properly disposed of in an ashtray or can, but still end up in a landfill. Szaky said that the company is committed to “recycling waste that others deem worthless or unsavory.” Recycling cigarette litter will promote the idea that “everything can and should be recycled,” he said. Cigarette waste accounted for 38 percent of all U.S. roadway litter, according to a 2009 study done by Keep America Beautiful. The study also found that cigarette butts were the most common litter item collected at sites including retail areas, storm drains, loading docks, construction sites and recreational areas. Additionally, more than 1 million cigarettes or cigarette butts — enough to fill nearly 58,000 packs — were removed from American beaches and inland waterways in 2011 as part of the Ocean Conservancy’s annual one-day International Coastal Cleanup. Cigarette litter represented about 31 percent of the total debris collected, making it the most-found item as part of those efforts. “Trash is really too valuable to toss, so we need to find alternative ways to up cycle and change trash and repurpose it,” said Nicholas Mallos, a marine debris specialist with group. In 2003, Keep America Beautiful launched a cigarette litter prevention program, and it has grown to include more than 800 programs in 49 states and Washington, D.C. It was developed with funding from the nation’s largest cigarette maker Philip Morris USA, which is owned by Richmond, Va.-based Altria Group Inc. The program also has received additional funding from Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Reynolds American, maker of Camel and Pall Mall cigarettes. The new cigarette program builds on other recycling efforts by TerraCycle, which encourages consumers to collect difficult-to-recycle materials through programs funded by companies within specific industries. For example, Frito Lay Inc. funds a program to recycle used chip bags and Kraft Foods Inc. sponsors a program to collect plastic containers from dairy products. For most programs, participants receive credits that can be donated to various charities and causes.