Turning discarded cigarette butts into something that can be reused in the future... The receptacles will be emptied by city workers, shipped to a company called TerraCycle where it will be sterilized and separated with the tobacco and paper composted, and the filters turned into plastic pellets that will be used in a variety of industrial applications such as plastic shipping pallets.
Hamilton's Barton Village BIA installs an interactive cigarette disposal box where smokers are invited to vote in a poll... They say a particular hot spot is in front of the Hamilton general hospital. Once collected the butts are shipped off to “Terracycle.” there the tobacco, ash and paper are turned into compost and the plastic in the filters is recycled.
EcoSuperior, an environmental group recycling cigarettes with TerraCycle, created an EcoTip video about the program.
As a former smoker, to me the only thing worse than the stale smoke smell that lingered in my hair and clothes was the stench of spent cigarette butts... Counted by piece, cigarette butts top the city’s litter list and are the second most common item found during shoreline cleanups. Many people don’t realize they can be recycled. Once or twice a week city crews empty the receptacles and the butts are shipped to TerraCycle’s recycling plant in Ontario.
Every butt collected raises money for a great cause. TerraCycle Canada, an innovative recycling company, is donating cash per pound of BUTT BIN butts that are recycled.
A new C-Tran recycling program will prevent thousands of discarded cigarette butts from going into landfills.
According to a news release, C-Tran started gathering all cigarette butts collected at Vine station receptacles in August 2018 and sending them to TerraCycle, a global, New Jersey-based recycling company that specializes in hard-to-recycle waste. Once received, the cigarette butts are separated by composition and melted into hard plastic. That material can then be used to make new recycled industrial products, including plastic pallets, according to TerraCycle. Any remaining tobacco and ash is recycled as compost.
C-Tran states that as many as 1 to 2 pounds of cigarette butts are discarded at Vine stations every week. That’s the equivalent of roughly 2,000 to 4,000 individual butts. By packing them up and shipping them for recycling, it keeps a huge volume of waste from ending up in landfills or causing environmental harm.
According to the release, TerraCycle donates $1 to the Keep America Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention Program for every pound of cigarettes collected. C-Tran plans to designate a local charity to receive donations as part of the program.
Encana Events Centre (EEC) in Dawson Creek is a great example of a company that went the extra mile to reduce the waste that goes to the landfill. According to TerraCycle, billions of cigarette butts go to the landfill, or even worse, end up thrown on the ground. Encana Events Centre decided to divert the cigarette butts they collect from their patrons.
One of the main things we have found in our garbage bins that are the most common are blue nitrile gloves that we use for farm safety practices. Unfortunately, there is no way around using them in certain areas on the farm for food safety purposes, and they are a significant source of waste.
A number of Oshawa residents showed how much they “love their lake” by cleaning up litter in Lakeview Park earlier this month.
The cleanups were part of non-profit A Greener Future’s Love Your Lake program, which takes place in more than 100 locations along Lake Ontario.
Love Your Lake sees volunteers collecting litter in a designated area in their community.
“Families bring their children out, we also have some seniors as well,” Rochelle Archibald, A Greener Future executive director says. “In general, it’s just people who want to get outside and take care of their community.”
