In collaboration with Enviropoles (who does the collecting) and TerraCycle (who does the recycling), the City is ensuring the butts are turned into usable items, including plastic furniture and shipping pallets.

The City of Melbourne has become one of only two councils in Australia to run a citywide initiative to recycle millions of cigarette butts into industrial products. The City of Melbourne has partnered with Enviropoles, which collects the cigarette waste, and TerraCycle, which converts the butts into plastic products.

Melbourne's cigarette butts are being shipped to the United States to be recycled into street furniture, shipping pallets and ashtrays. City of Melbourne councillor and environment portfolio chair Cathy Oke said the council had partnered with a recycling company for the scheme.

Did you know Terracycle accepts oral care products for recycling?

Dental Week is 7 – 13 Aug and we will collect any of the items listed below for recycling.  Please bring to the August group clean.

Millions of cigarette butts have been harvested from central Melbourne's bins and will be transformed into plastic products under a city council scheme to recycle litter. The butts are dried, compressed and sent to TerraCycle in Sydney to be reused.

A growing number of dentists are now collecting dental waste (toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, dental picks, packaging) and getting it turned into playground equipment by Terracycle;

Generally, it’s been easy to say no to the “big four” – single-use bags, straws, bottles and coffee cups. Simply switch to re-suable. I never used plastic cutlery and plates. I’ve switched to bar over liquid soap, which is actually rather lovely, but when it comes to cosmetics, I’ll be honest – I didn’t even try. Too wedded to my red lippie and favourite moisturiser, but I have joined the Terracycle Beauty Products Recycling Program.

When the Whole Kids organic kids snack business began 12 years ago, co-founder Monica Meldrum knew she was taking on some formidable multinational businesses, but creating healthy snack choices for kids in a way that gave back to the community was the objective from start. Whole Kids' food pouches are also fully recyclable due to a partnership with Terracycle and Australia Post.

This month we are tackling the challenge of Plastic Free July! Did you know that scientists predict there will be more tonnes of plastic than tonnes of fish by 2050? And the global annual consumption of plastic bottles is set to top half a trillion by 2021? Recycle your beauty products, toothbrushes, post satchels, coffee pods + more with TerraCycle.

There are now options to recycle your used pods, should you wish to do so; by a company called TerraCycle.