“The RAI Group supports the Keep America Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention Program and one of its operating companies has a partnership with TerraCycle, which lets adult volunteers across the country collect cigarette butts and send them to TerraCycle, where they are combined with other recyclable materials to make useful, earth-friendly items such as lumber, furniture, containers and more,” said Kaelan Hollon, the senior director of communications for Reynolds American. “To date, this partnership program has collected more than 100 million pieces of cigarette waste, an estimate based on 1 pound of cigarette waste being equal to 1,000 cigarette butts.”

"The RAI Group supports the Keep America Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention Program and one of its operating companies has a partnership with TerraCycle, which lets adult volunteers across the country collect cigarette butts and send them to TerraCycle, where they are combined with other recyclable materials to make useful, earth-friendly items such as lumber, furniture, containers and more," said Kaelan Hollon, the senior director of communications for Reynolds American. "To date, this partnership program has collected more than 100 million pieces of cigarette waste, an estimate based on 1 pound of cigarette waste being equal to 1,000 cigarette butts."

One surprising addition to managing cigarette residuals has been TerraCycle’s recycling program for them. The company accepts a variety of materials for free recycling, and in the case of cigarettes, even donates $1 to the non-profit of your choice for every pound collected. Any adult or organization can sign up for free to become a collector, and once a shipment is ready, print out a free shipping label that UPS then picks up. Some municipalities are creating drop-off bins throughout to assist with collection.

For no cost to the participating restaurant, they are supplied with a Sidewalk Buttler receptacle, as well as materials needed to ship collected butts to TerraCycle, where they will be recycled. Cigarette filters can be turned into plastic pellets, and they can be turned into things like pallets and park benches. The organic materials left over are then composted by TerraCycle facilities.

"Urban mining. Tom Szaky and his company TerraCycle are all over it."

They presented their findings on a company called TerraCycle, which offers proper disposal of cigarettes for free. Once cigarette waste is collected, it can be shipped to them via UPS.

“Cigarette butts don’t break down, that’s why you see them everywhere. Once the receptacle is full, we call TerraCycle and they send us a bag to dump the cigarette butts in. We ship them back to the company and they recycle the filters and compost the tobacco.”

While walking along the coast, one can come across broken bottles, plastic toys and food wrappers among others, but cigarette butts appear to be the most common.

POLLUTION | 05/10/19   In fact, cigarette butts are a prevalent, lasting, and toxic form of marine debris, that can potentially harm marine organisms and their environments. Cigarette butts initially reach the waterways through their improper disposal on beaches, rivers and land and are transported to the coats by rainwater.   Moreover, the 2018 International Coastal Cleanup Report, by the Ocean Conservancy reported that 2,412,151 cigarette butts were collected in 2017 universally, which constitutes an increase from the 2016 number of 1,863,838 butts worldwide.   Cigarette filters contain a plastic-like material called cellulose acetate which on one hand may be easy in its production, but is not easily degradable on the other hand. Notably, the fibers in the filters act just like plastic in the ocean. The UV rays from the sun break down the fibers into smaller chunks that don't vanish from the ocean, which eventually translates to one single filter ending up to many tiny micro-plastics in the waters.   The U.S. Federal government created the NOAA Marine Debris Program in order to address the marine debris problem.   NOAA recommends that there are some handful tips about what we can do in order to keep the oceans free form cigarette butts, lighters and cigar tips, such as:

• If you are a smoker, place your cigarette butt in a proper receptacle or buy a pocket ashtray for that matter. This can be like a metal box or vinyl purse that fits in your pocket or bag until you potentially properly dispose them in the trash.
• Recycle the butts if possible. Check to see if there any schemes in your area. The City of Vancouver, and other organizations like TerraCycle, will actually recycle your filters for you.
• Organize cleanups with your local community and document your findings in the Marine Debris Tracker App. Moreover, communicate the importance of proper disposal in your own community.

    A three-hour single-day clean up event has rid Hamilton of tens of thousands of cigarette butts in the city’s downtown core.   Saturday’s ‘Butt Blitz’ was an affair tied to a prevention program launched this past week, aimed at reducing cigarette litter across the city.   Individual volunteers armed with supply bags and gloves spread out around the city’s lower end to pick up butts in that neighbourhood.   Upon completion of the event, the city claimed volunteers had picked up 37,052 cigarette butts.   A month-long campaign to take cigarette garbage off Ontario streets was launched at the beginning of April with environmental preservation volunteer group A Greener Future behind the initiative.   To date, the group claims to have picked up 772,368 cigarette butts off streets in six provinces across Canada since starting the program in 2015.   Cigarette filters are made from a non-biodegradable plastic and are considered pollution. A Greener Future says the butts are toxic and pose a threat to domestic animals and wildlife, like dogs and fish who can mistake the ends as food.   Cigarette butts picked up by volunteers in Hamilton on Saturday will be sent to TerraCycle Canada for recycling. The plastics inside the waste can be separated by composition and melted into hard plastic that can make new recycled industrial products, such as plastic pallets.     The City of Hamilton along with 5 other local agencies are hoping to educate the public on the negative environmental effects discarded cigarette butts have on the environment. agreenerfuture.ca