The plastic used in the filters is recycled into things such as plastic pallets for industrial use, while any remaining tobacco or paper is composted, said Jeff Kranz, spokesman for TerraCycle. Since the program began in 2012, it has netted more than a ton of cigarette butts and related material, he said. That material isn’t going into landfills or waterways, he added.

The plastic used in the filters is recycled into things such as plastic pallets for industrial use, while any remaining tobacco or paper is composted, said Jeff Kranz, spokesman for TerraCycle.

Since the program began in 2012, it has netted more than a ton of cigarette butts and related material, he said. That material isn't going into landfills or waterways, he added.

The program is sponsored by Terracycle, and Lyons discovered it through a website that offers other recycling programs. She saves the cigarette butts in a Folger’s can, tripled bagged and exiled to the porch to keep the odor away, and sends them off with a prepaid label when the can is full.

The program is sponsored by TerraCycle, and Lyons discovered it through a website that offers other recycling programs. She saves the cigarette butts in a Folger's can, triple bagged and exiled to the porch to keep the odor away, and sends them off with a prepaid label when the can is full.

Santana Tamarak, owner of Tamarak’s Wellness Center in Scottsbluff, has built a business on helping customers achieve personal wellness, but recently he found a way to improve the community’s environmental health. “Just as we recommend to our clients that a cleansing is important to do a couple of times a year, Mother Earth needs that cleanse, as well,” he said. Smokers not only neglect their own health, but many of them are litterbugs. According to Keep America Beautiful, the largest community improvement organization in the U.S., 65 percent of all cigarette butts are disposed of improperly, and cigarette waste accounts for 39 percent of all U.S. roadway litter. Since December, Tamarak has collected about 9,000 butts and shipped them off to a recycling company called TerraCycle. He said he became interested in the company because of the odd items it uses to make recycled products. The company accepts post-consumer products that local recycling programs usually can’t take: potato chip bags, cheese packing plastic, oral hygiene products, candy wrappers and much more. TerraCycle has been in business for a little over a decade, growing from a small, dorm-room operation making organic fertilizer using the cafeteria’s kitchen waste. Now it is the world’s leader in the collection and reuse of non-recyclable, post-consumer waste, which it transforms into affordable products for the home, garden and office. “I chose cigarette butts, because I thought it was unusual,” he said. “They sent me a sort of rubber ash tray to show me an example of what they are recycling the cigarette butts into.” Primarily, the butts are converted into plastic pallets for industrial use, and any remaining tobacco or paper is composted. “Obviously, this isn’t a perfect system,” he said. “We still have cigarette butts. But when I look around at auto supply places, or the courthouse, or other institutions that have butt containers sitting outside — there are hundreds of them — I pick that as a place to start.” Collecting the butts is just a hobby venture for the small business owner. He said it fulfills his desire to do something for the community. And while TerraCycle offers prizes to organizations that donate significantly, Tamarak acts as a volunteer, expecting nothing in return. He collects cigarette butts from parks, the local courthouse and private donors. “Between folks that I know who drop cigarette butts off at the store (Tamarak’s Wellness Center), plus the courthouse, my first shipment was nine pounds,” he said. “My second shipment was about five pounds.” Participation in the nationwide Cigarette Waste Brigade is limited to adults age 21 and older. It is completely free. The Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, maker of the American Spirit cigarette brand and partner with the Cigarette Waste Brigade, pays for the shipping cost. Additionally, for every pound of cigarette waste TerraCycle receives, $1 is donated to Keep America Beautiful.  

If you feel guilty when you throw away a butter tub, deodorant tube or other trash, check out some of the recycling programs from the Trenton, N.J.-based company TerraCycle.cigarette_butts The company has 40 programs for collecting and recycling everything from candy wrappers and juice pouches to Solo cups and tape dispensers. The trash is turned into new products such as park benches and backpacks, some of which can be found at Target and Walmart. One of the programs, known as The Cigarette Waste Brigade, is run by TerraCycle and the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. Members of the public are asked to collect extinguished cigarettes, filters, loose tobacco pouches, outer plastic packaging, inner foil packaging, rolling paper and ash, which are turned into plastic pallets and other products. (The cardboard boxes are not accepted  since they can be recycled through municipal programs.) When it’s time to send in the waste, a free shipping label can be printed out from TerraCycle web site. The company was founded in 2001 by Tom Szaky when he was a Princeton University student. TerraCycle began producing organic fertilizer by packaging liquified “worm poop” in used soda bottles. More than 40 million people nationwide participate in the recycling programs, diverting more than 2.5 billion pieces of waste from landfills, according to a company news release.

Russell Minor collects his cigarette butts at home and stores them in an old "oil rag" can until it is time to send them to TerraCycle.  To spread the word, he shows his friends how easy it is to collect at home. "I feel the more people divert from landfills, the better off our planet will be," said Minor. "It's important that as much waste as possible gets diverted from the landfills into a new life as something useful." This recycling program is a joint effort between Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. and TerraCycle, which teamed up to create The Cigarette Waste Brigade, a national program to collect and recycle cigarette butts and other cigarette-related waste, according to Jeff Kranz of TerraCycle. Cigarette butts are not biodegradable and do not break down quickly.  They, and other related tobacco waste, are the number one item recovered during the annual Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup Day, with more than 52 million cigarette filters collected from beaches in the past 25 years. The Cigarette Waste Brigade accepts extinguished cigarettes, cigarette filters, loose tobacco pouches, outer plastic packaging, inner foil packaging, rolling paper, and ash. TerraCycle does not accept the cardboard packaging of cigarette boxes since they can usually be recycled through municipal recycling programs. Visit www.terracycle.com to learn more about TerraCycle or sign up for the Cigarette Waste Brigade.  

According to Keep America Beautiful, 65 percent of all cigarette butts are disposed of improperly and cigarette waste accounts for 38 percent of all U.S. roadway litter. But Gail Wedding from Laytonville and Russell Minor from Potter Valley are doing their part to keep their cigarette waste out of the local landfill by sending it to recycling pioneer TerraCycle. This recycling program is a joint effort between Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. and TerraCycle, which teamed up to create The Cigarette Waste Brigade, a national program to collect and recycle cigarette butts and other cigarette-related waste, according to Jeff Kranz of TerraCycle. Participation in this nationwide Brigade is limited to adults, aged 21 and older.  It is free, and all shipping costs are paid by Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company.  For every pound of cigarette waste TerraCycle receives, one dollar is donated to Keep America Beautiful. The collected cigarette butts are recycled into a variety of products, primarily plastic pallets for industrial uses. Any remaining tobacco or paper is composted. Cigarette butts are not biodegradable and do not break down quickly.  They, and other related tobacco waste, are the number one item recovered during the annual Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup Day, with more than 52 million cigarette filters collected from beaches in the past 25 years. The Cigarette Waste Brigade accepts extinguished cigarettes, cigarette filters, loose tobacco pouches, outer plastic packaging, inner foil packaging, rolling paper, and ash. TerraCycle does not accept the cardboard packaging of cigarette boxes since they can usually be recycled through municipal recycling programs.

Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. (SFNTC) has teamed up with TerraCycle, a world leader in developing solutions for hard-to-recycle materials, to do something about cigarette butt litter. SFNTC manufactures Natural American Spirit additive-free, natural tobacco cigarettes and roll-your-own tobaccos, which include styles that are made with 100 percent organic tobacco as well as 100 percent U.S. Grown tobacco.

In a program started in May in Canada and now running from the United States to Spain, TerraCycle collects cigarette butts from volunteers and turns them into plastic, which can be used for anything, even ashtrays themselves. The discarded cigarettes, which litter countries around the world, are first broken up, with the paper and remaining tobacco composted. The filter, made of a plastic called cellulose acetate, is melted down and turned into an ingredient for making a wide range of industrial plastic products, such as pallets -- the trays used to ship heavy goods. It seems that for once smoking benefits everyone. The tobacco industry, happy to get some decent publicity, pays TerraCycle. Volunteer collectors win points per butt, which can then be redeemed as contributions to charities. Sidewalks start looking cleaner. And TerraCycle, which sells recycled products to retailers like Walmart and Whole Foods, gets more business.