Take it a step farther and recycle the cigarette butts you collect. Check out terracycle.com to find out how. According to their website, nearly 40 million butts have been collected so far which are recycled into a variety of industrial products, including plastic pallets.

Zoo School crews in 2013 and 2014 collected nearly 17,000 butts on the two cleanup days. Those cigarette butts were recycled through Terracycle. The paper and tobacco is turned into non-food compost and the fibers of the filters are mixed with concrete to make paving stones, keeping all the materials out of landfills.

TerraCycle, based in New Jersey, collects cigarette butts to make plastic lumber for pallets, benches, and whatever else requires lumber. The fibers could also be used for fabric.

New Orleans sells the cigarette butts to a company called TerraCycle, based in Trenton, New Jersey at $4 a pound. The company then goes to work processing the butts into useful things. The organic parts of the butts, the paper and tobacco, are turned into compost. The tobacco is not used to make more cigarettes.

The association bought 15 new bins made from recycled plastic from a New Jersey company called TerraCycle Inc., which sells a variety of products from recycled trash and materials. Under a recycling program the company offers, TerraCycle will haul away the cigarette waste and “up-cycle” it into useful products. The association, in turn, gets a discount on the bins: $50 each rather than the list price of up to $300.

Known as the Cigarette Waste Brigade, TerraCycle’s effort to make recycling cigarettes easier for smokers is a first-of-its-kind program according to Albe Zakes, VP of communications at the company, who told Fusion that “before TerraCycle cigarettes weren’t recyclable.” Since kicking off in New Orleans, the Cigarette Waste Brigade can now be found in cities nationwide, as well as internationally in Australia, the U.K., France, and Brazil. To date in the United States, TerraCycle has set up over 7,000 cigarette recycling bins and more than 38 million butts having been collected.

The Westwood Village Improvement Association, also known as the BID, installed long gray TerraCycle receptacles on street poles earlier this month. The program cost the BID about $1,000, but the recycling company TerraCycle will send the BID money or furniture if officials collect a certain amount of cigarette butts, said Andrew Thomas, executive director of the BID. Workers will empty the receptacles every Monday and ship the waste to TerraCycle, where they will turn the waste into plastic products or furniture, said Michael Gonzalez, ambassador operations manager of the BID.

No if, ands, or butts about it. Litter is a constant problem, and it begins with something as small as a butt...a cigarette butt. Rachel Witt, Executive Director of South Grand Community Improvement District, and Laura Allers-Lower, Event Coordinator of St. Louis Earth Day, can agree.