One free mail-in collection program called TerraCycle transforms the waste into plastic, Walton told INSIDER. Cigarettes and packaging are separated and then melted into hard plastic that can be remolded into plastic pellets, which can be used to create a variety of plastic products

Public recycling may not have caught up, but almost everything is technically recyclable. An easy solution for our most common waste items, even in an uncertain recycling system, is TerraCycle’s free recycling programs. Sponsored by brands committed to making typically unrecyclable items (such as chip bags, contact lenses, even cigarette butts) nationally recyclable, these programs allow any individual, school, business or community group to reduce landfill waste and earn points for charity.

CBC Radio interviewed Joy Nemerson about Zero Waste Boxes and the future of recycling at the Sustainable Brands conference in Vancouver last week. Listen to the segment at 2:30:00 - 02:34:36 via the link.

In an effort to reduce cigarette litter and keep butts out of landfills, the N.C. Aquarium on Roanoke Island has joined Terracycle’s cigarette recycling program.

Alongside bins for papers, plastics and glass, visitors to downtown Branson can add cigarette butts to the list of recyclables. Mona Menezes, environmental specialist for the city, said the idea to purchase recycling units came from Sharon White, of the city’s recycling center, and former city engineer David Miller. “If you ever walk the downtown sidewalks, they have had cigarette butts littered on them,” Menezes said. “So (White) thought this would address that.” The number of cigarette butts on the sidewalk was also a concern for several downtown businesses and organizations, including the Downtown Branson Betterment Association.

A project to collect discarded cigarette butts from downtown city streets has reached the two-year mark and it has been a big success. Downtown Grand Rapids Inc., the group that helps manage what goes on downtown, installed 20 cigarette butt recycling urns about two years ago. Nicole Hills and Veronica Kuhl assumed they were doing what everyone should do when they used one of several urns located on Monroe Center Street.“Don't be an ugly American, clean up after yourself,” Kuhl said. “I don't throw trash out my car. You know, clean up after yourself.” Butts are collected from the urns every day, bagged up and sent to TerraCycle, a New Jersey firm that collects and then separates the butts.

Saviez-vous que les mégots de cigarettes représentent approximativement 30% des déchets récupérés sur les sols publics ? En riposte à ce problème, la Société pour l’action, l’éducation et la sensibilisation environnementale de Montréal (SAESEM) avec le soutien de la Ville de Montréal prend pour mandat l’amélioration de la qualité de vie des Montréalais et instaure le projet pilote Mégot Zéro.

As part of its efforts to make downtown Peterborough cleaner and greener in 2018, the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA) is giving away free wall-mounted cigarette receptacles to downtown businesses.

Apart from newspaper, plastics and glass, there are many things in your home which can be recycled. Any home generates a lot of garbage, and most of this garbage contains things which can be put to use again, including used diapers. A company in Canada is extracting the plastic and paper from used diapers and recycling that to make plastic components, recycled paper, tubing and roof tiles. This just goes to show that almost everything can be recycled these days.

In Park Slope, Brooklyn, the Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District has moved forward with an initiative to install special cigarette receptacles along Fifth Avenue. The bins will collect cigarette and cigar butts, rolling paper, loose tobacco pouches, filters, inner and outer package foiling and ash (cardboard cigarette boxes are not accepted). The waste from the receptacles is collected by TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based company that specializes in recycling items that wouldn’t ordinarily be considered recyclable. The company works with different municipalities around the country and world to install receptacles in order to diversify waste streams.