Earlier this year, New Mexico-based Santa Fe Natural Co., a subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc., the nation's second-largest cigarette maker, and TerraCycle Inc. announced a partnership to recycle cigarette butts into pellets used to make such items as park benches, shipping pallets and railroad ties. The Cigarette Waste Brigade asks 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 plans to 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, the company said. "This is one of the most exciting developments in TerraCycle's history," said Tom Szaky, TerraCycle's founder, in a statement when the program was launched. "As a company committed to recycling waste streams that others deem worthless or unsavory, cigarette waste will help to promote our belief that everything can and should be recycled." Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky is sponsoring the bill on the Senate side. "This should really be done at a higher level than the state level," DenDekker said about the recycling program. "But nobody in the federal government would even consider talking about a topic like this until some municipality somewhere institutes a pilot program that works, creates jobs and saves government money."