NEW ORLEANS – The City of New Orleans and the city’s Downtown Development District are launching a pilot program to collect and recycle cigarette butts, via an extension of TerraCycle’s Cigarette Waste Brigade — a nationwide, mail-in recycling program that is sponsored by Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company. New Orleans is the first city in the United States to implement a city-wide collection system, which launched this week with the installation of 50 new cigarette-recycling receptacles on several blocks in the city’s Downtown District. The receptacles will be easily identified with stickers that say “Recycle Your Butts Here.” Cigarette butts collected through the nationwide program are recycled into a variety of industrial products, such as plastic pallets. Any remaining tobacco is repurposed via tobacco-specific composting methods. The entire program is free to the city and its tax-payers, as TerraCycle supplies the receptacles and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, through the Cigarette Waste Brigade, covers the ongoing program costs. Additionally, for every pound of cigarette waste collected, $4 will be donated to the DDD to help fund green jobs throughout the city.