Community advocacy played a key role in prompting Owen Sound to launch a pilot project aimed at snuffing out cigarette-butt litter in its downtown. “A lot of residents in the city have been concerned with seeing all the butts laying around,” said environmental services supervisor Cassandra Cesco. The city has installed 10 cigarette waste receptacles at various locations throughout the core as part of the new project. All cigarette butts, filters, loose tobacco, rolling papers and other acceptable smoking-related waste collected in the silver containers will then be shipped to TerraCycle for recycling. Cesco acknowledged the group Owen Sound Waste Watchers, whose members have been picking up cigarette butts in the community for the past year and sending them to TerraCycle, came up with the idea for the project and provided the first receptacle. The city then agreed to take on the initiative by creating a plan, purchasing nine more receptacles and installing them, she said. Cesco said the city and group worked together to determine the best locations for the containers. The intention, she said, is to “maintain and beautify” the city’s downtown and reduce the environmental impact associated with chemicals found in cigarettes. Laura Wood of the Waste Watchers group said she’s delighted the city has launched the receptacle project. “I think the significance is it was a group effort of citizens and municipal employees who came together and said this is something that needs to be done and worked together on it,” she said. “There still is a long way to go, of course, with the education around the proper disposal of cigarette butts. So this is certainly not the be all and end all of this process, but I think it’s certainly a fine beginning.” Wood said the project provides smokers with an option, which in most cases in Owen Sound didn’t exist before, to properly dispose of their butts. “During our waste pickups, we very rarely encountered any receptacles in the city,” she said. TerraCycle says 65 per cent of all cigarette butts are littered and tobacco products make up 38 per cent of all roadside litter. The Owen Sound Waste Watchers, which holds regular trash pickup events, has collected and shipped to TerraCycle tens of thousands of cigarette butts since its inception. The group also provides butt disposal cans to businesses and organizations, and then returns to collect the discarded materials. The group is providing 12 cans to the Georgian Bay Folk Society this weekend, so they are available at the Summerfolk Music & Crafts Festival. Waste Watchers members will be on site to empty the cans. Anyone interested in receiving a can can contact the group at oswastewatchers@gmail.com or via their Facebook page, Owen Sound Waste Watchers. Cesco said funding for the city’s receptacle program came from its recycling budget. TerraCycle, an American company with a facility in Fergus, offers free recycling programs that are funded by brands, manufacturers and retailers to help divert hard-to-recycle waste from landfill. The company separates cigarette butts by material. Residual tobacco and paper are composted, while the filter – made of a white synthetic fibre called cellulose acetate – is cleaned and melted into pellets. Those pellets are then combined with other plastics and used for new products like ashtrays, shipping pallets or plastic lumber.