PUR Water Filtration Pitchers and Faucet Filtration Systems, from Helen of Troy Health and Home, officially launches on World Water Day (March 22, 2017) at an event featuring Dr. David Suzuki as guest of honour and keynote speaker. Dr. David Suzuki will address the individual responsibility each Canadian has to the environment, and more specifically water quality. Mr. Michael Mitchell from PUR, will discuss the next generation of water filtration systems certified to remove 99% of lead, and more specifically, MAXION^® Filter Technology – PUR’s unique formulation approach for blending carbon and ion exchange materials for maximum contaminant reduction. TerraCycle will officially launch and discuss its corporate and environmental responsibility partnership with PUR.

PUR Water Filtration Pitchers and Faucet Filtration Systems, from Helen of Troy Health and Home, officially launches on World Water Day (March 22, 2017) at an event featuring Dr. David Suzuki as guest of honour and keynote speaker. Dr. David Suzuki will address the individual responsibility each Canadian has to the environment, and more specifically water quality. Mr. Michael Mitchell from PUR, will discuss the next generation of water filtration systems certified to remove 99% of lead, and more specifically, MAXION^® Filter Technology – PUR’s unique formulation approach for blending carbon and ion exchange materials for maximum contaminant reduction. TerraCycle will officially launch and discuss its corporate and environmental responsibility partnership with PUR.

WOODSTOCK - The OLG Slots and Raceway in Woodstock has teamed up with TerraCycle to keep cigarette butts out of the landfill. They have joined TerraCycle's province-wide Waste Recycling Program. How it works is the racetrack collects their cigarette butts and ships them to TerraCycle free of charge to be recycled. Once a business signs up for the program you will earn points that can be redeemed for cash donations to the non-profit charity of your choice. Province-wide donations from this program have just surpassed $29,000. Director of Policy and Social Responsibilities at OLG Catherine Jarmain says this was an easy decision for them to join this program. “OLG has been a proud participant of TerraCycle’s Cigarette Waste Recycling Program since 2012. During this time, our site-led recycling programs have contributed to OLG’s environmental footprint reduction and have generated funds that sites then donate to local charities. Last year, OLG sites hosted a total of 14 TerraCycle waste recycling programs which collected 885 kilos of previously non-recyclable waste and raised over $1,900 for local charities. It’s gratifying to know that through one initiative we are improving the environment and, at the same time, helping those in the community who depend on local charities for important services.” TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky explains why they started this program. “Every year, billions of cigarette butts end up in dumpsters and landfills, or get tossed as litter on shorelines, parks, and sidewalks across Canada. We have a big ‘thank you’ for the more than two thousand locations that have helped us collect 73 million cigarette butts through this recycling program.”

Taking a bad habit and making something good come from it. That was the idea DYNA-MIG quality and environmental and systems specialist Angela Blum had when she suggested the Stratford automotive components manufacturer begin participating in TerraCycle’s Cigarette Waste Recycling program back in 2012. “I got the idea from an environmental news blitz, and I read through it and I thought this looks pretty good because we want to reduce waste. Cigarette butts are plastic, so the stuff that isn’t smoked goes into compost, but the actual butt, the filter, is plastic. So (TerraCycle) makes plastic pallets and tote bags out of it,” Blum said. TerraCycle is an international recycling company that finds innovative solutions for materials not typically accepted at municipal recycling facilities. The company repurposes the waste collected through programs like its Cigarette Waste Recycling program into sustainable and affordable materials and consumer products. In 21 countries around the world, the waste is collected by individual collectors, consumer product companies, manufacturers, municipalities and small businesses through programs that, in return, donate money to a collector’s chosen school or charity. Since 2013, when the DYNA-MIG facility in Stratford fully implemented the program, employees have sent almost 600,000 cigarette butts – about 500 pounds of material -- off to Toronto to be recycled at no cost to the company. Since TerraCycle pays for the shipping, those in charge of orchestrating DYNA-MIG’s participation in the program need only print off the shipping labels and call UPS to come pick up the boxes. “At our smoking shelter that’s outside, we have 12 collection stations where employees put their cigarettes and the butts and everything goes in there. Then they’re collected in the pales. They have to be stirred for seven days to make sure there’s no embers – if you put a hot butt in a box that goes into a UPS truck, that could end poorly,” Blum said. “We have an outside shelter where these buckets and butts go and they get stirred. We have two facility associates in charge of collecting and monitoring them. Basically we collect enough that in two months we send three or four, sometime five boxes of them off.” For every cigarette butt DYNA-MIG ships off to be recycled, the company receives a certain number of points through the TerraCycle cigarette butt program. When exchanged, those points equate to one one-hundredth of a cent for every cigarette butt collected, all of which is earmarked for a charity of the company’s choice. So far, DYNA-MIG’s efforts have raised $454, $230 of which was used to build 92 bee homes in an area of Toronto known as Evergreen Brickworks. Evergreen is a national charity that makes cities more liveable by helping Canadians create and sustain dynamic outdoor spaces in schools, communities and homes. “TerraCycle had a bunch of suggestions in a news bulletin and I was reading through it and thought Evergreen’s Bee Program looked pretty good. I presented it to our green team that we have here and said I would like us to use our points for this because the bee disease that’s been going around (colony collapse disorder) is a big problem. If they can’t pollinate from flower to flower, from tree to tree, we’re going to lose our fruits and vegetables,” Blum said, adding that apiarists working with Evergreen monitor the bee homes built in Toronto to try and understand what causes colony collapse disorder, while also maintaining the ability to isolate any hives that come down with the disease to prevent it from spreading. After only a year of participation in TerraCycle’s Cigarette Butt Waste Recycling program, DYNA-MIG was presented with a Good Idea Award for its efforts at its parent company, F-Tech Inc.’s 2014 environmental conference in Japan. Because of its success in Stratford, F-Tech is now looking at implementing the program at each of DYNA-MIG’s sister companies worldwide. For more information on how to reduce local landfill waste through TerraCycle’s recycling programs, visit www.terracycle.ca.

The Downtown Barrie BIA is set to ramp up the war on butts. Managing Director Craig Stevens says the Association is looking to buy more than a dozen cigarette receptacles in a bid to keep downtown streets clean of butts. Coun. Doug Shipley added $2,500 for cigarette receptacles in the downtown as part of the 2017 budget. Council's move was in response to complaints about overflowing ashtrays and cigarette butts along Dunlop St. During the budget debatrs, Mayor Jeff Lehman said the city has to have a higher standard of cleanliness in the city core and along the waterfront, as he argued on spending $32,800 on increased maintenance. “We did receive a significant number of complaints this year. With the popularity of our core area and waterfront comes more litter and more mess. As we open the new Centennial Park and the new Meridian Square, we will see the problems getting worse,” Lehman said last month. In May, the annual Butt Blitz event led by A Greener Future has a 2017 goal to pick up 200,000 butts nationally. Barrie's 2016 contribution was 7,475 and organizers are targeting 10,000 this year. ZuZu Fashion Boutique owner Tracey Baker is  Downtown Volunteer Coordinator for the Blitz and has already erected a cigarette receptacle outside of her Dunlop St. East shop. The Butt Blitz is an open event that anyone in Canada can join. Participants can either attend a local cleanup where coordinators are running the event, or participants can collect butts on their own and drop them off to the coordinator afterwards. The goal of the event is to remove as much cigarette butt litter from ecosystems across Canada as possible during a one day Butt Blitz event and send the butts to TerraCycle Canada for recycling. Organizers also hope to raise awareness of the negative impacts that cigarette butt litter has on ecosystems and health.

TerraCycle and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) are working together to keep cigarette butts off streets and out of landfills. Employees of OLG Slots at Dresden Raceway and other OLG locations across the province contributed to TerraCycle’s province-wide Cigarette Waste Recycling Program, which just reached a milestone of 39 million cigarette butts diverted from Ontario’s waste stream. By helping to keep cigarette butts out of landfills, OLG Slots at Dresden Raceway and other collectors earn points that can be redeemed for cash donations to the non-profit of their choice. Thanks to collectors like OLG Slots at Dresden Raceway, province-wide donations have just passed $29,000. “OLG has been a proud participant of TerraCycle’s Cigarette Waste Recycling Program since 2012,” said Catherine Jarmain, Director, Policy and Social Responsibility at OLG. “During this time, our site-led recycling programs have contributed to OLG’s environmental footprint reduction and have generated funds that sites then donate to local charities. Last year, OLG sites hosted a total of 14 TerraCycle waste recycling programs which collected 885 kilos of previously non-recyclable waste and raised over $1,900 for local charities. It’s gratifying to know that through one initiative we are improving the environment and, at the same time, helping those in the community who depend on local charities for important services.” TerraCycle is an international recycling company that finds innovative solutions for materials not typically accepted at municipal recycling facilities. The waste collected through the Cigarette Waste Recycling Program is recycled into a variety of industrial products, such as plastic pallets, and any remaining tobacco and paper is recycled as compost. “Every year, billions of cigarette butts end up in dumpsters and landfills, or get tossed as litter on shorelines, parks, and sidewalks across Canada” said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky. “We have a big ‘thank you’ for the more than two thousand locations that have helped us collect 73 million cigarette butts through this recycling program.” Any individual, business or organization interested in reducing local landfill waste can learn more about TerraCycle at www.terracycle.ca.

Cleaning garbage off the streets of downtown Victoria can be a tedious, never-ending task, but a local group is always up to the challenge.   On weekdays, the Downtown Victoria Business Association's Clean Team, armed with green jackets and cleaning tools such as brooms, garbage cans, kitty litter and cleaner, comb downtown Victoria streets searching for garbage, such as cigarette butts, to pick up.   Over the past three years, they've collected thousands of cigarette butts. Now, the Clean Team, along with similar organizations around the country, have reached a new milestone — they have helped collect 73 million cigarette butts nationwide diverting them from the waste stream.   “It's an enormous number,” said Rob Caunter, manager of the Clean Team. “Not only does it improve the aesthetics of downtown, but it keeps cigarette butts out of storm drains, out of our oceans where fish could eat them, and ultimately out of our food sources.”   The Clean Team's cigarette butt recycling project is a partnership between the Surfrider Foundation and the City of Victoria, which began in 2014.   As part of the pilot project, cigarette butt canisters have been installed around the city, encouraging smokers to discard their butts in the canisters, rather than throwing them onto the street, where they often end up in storm drains and eventually the ocean.   “They're not biodegradable and they are jammed full of toxins that filter out of these cigarettes,” said Caunter, adding the canisters have been helpful in reducing the number of butts on the street, but more canisters are needed.   “It's like putting a million poisonous things in the ocean on an on-going basis.”   Every week, Clean Team members are tasked with emptying the canisters and picking up additional butts, which are then packaged and shipped off to TerraCycle Canada, a company that takes difficult-to-recycle packaging and turns it into affordable and innovative products, such as industrial plastics for palettes and garden benches.   The Clean Team is responsible for more than just picking up cigarette butts around town. Members also wash windows, doorways, and recesses of buildings, clean up graffiti and remove drug paraphernalia year-round.

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, through TerraCycle’s free, national Cigarette Waste Recycling Program, has helped the nationwide collection reach a milestone of 73 million cigarette butts diverted from the waste stream, it was announced March 2. Along with keeping butts out of landfills, collectors earn points that can be redeemed for cash donations to the non-profit of the collector’s choice. Through the efforts of collectors like Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, nationwide donations have just passed $53,500. “Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise has an extensive recycling program,” said Mortimer Capriles, environmental systems manager, Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, in a release. “As part of our ongoing efforts to improve our environmental performance, the sustainability committee and the grounds team decided to start a cigarette waste recycling program in 2015, with the support of TerraCycle.” TerraCycle is an international recycling company that finds innovative solutions for materials not typically accepted at municipal recycling facilities. The waste collected through the Cigarette Waste Recycling Program is recycled into a variety of industrial products, such as plastic pallets, and any remaining tobacco and paper is recycled as compost. Founded in 2001, TerraCycle is a leader in the collection and reuse of non-recyclable postconsumer waste. It repurposes the waste into sustainable, affordable materials and consumer products. In 21 countries, the waste is collected through programs that donate money to schools and charities.

Not everyone cares about keeping the West Coast clean, which means its up to volunteers to keep local shores pristine. After riding a swell of support last year, Surfrider Pacific Rim is ready to rip into 2017. “Surfrider has built a network of coastal defenders who transform a passion for our coast into a lasting protection,” said chapter-president Michelle Hall during a recent presentation to Tofino’s municipal council. “We’re fortunate to live in a place where passion for protection is in our blood and we’re a community of guardians including First Nations, environmentalists, scientists as well as ocean lovers, surfers, beach walkers and dog lovers.” She said the foundation laid solid groundwork in 2016 by raising awareness of its initiatives and engaging with the community. “We’re really inclusive to everyone and volunteers really enjoy the citizen feel of our organization,” she said. “Our voice is always positive and we’re always sharing solutions.” She added the foundation holds a public meet up at Tofino Brewing Company on the first Wednesday of every month. “We have a solid crew of 21 amazing people in Tofino and Ucluelet,” she said. “It’s a really good way for new people coming to Tofino and Ucluelet to get involved with their community.” The foundation welcomed over 250 volunteers to 24 beach cleanups in 2016, according to Hall, who said the five most commonly found pollutants were plastics, styrofoam, cigarette butts, fishing gear and recyclables. “In 2016 we collected almost 5,000 kilograms of marine debris from our pristine coastline,” she said. The local Surfrider crew earned huge accolades and widespread media attention with its Straws Suck campaign last year that saw 41 local businesses nix single-use straws from their operations and brought  increased awareness around plastic pollution. Hall said three major campaigns are in the works for 2017: an Ocean Friendly Business, Bring your own Bag and Hold onto your Butt. “The Ocean Friendly Business Campaign will invite all businesses in the Pacific Rim to reduce and eliminate single use plastics,” she said adding straws will continue to be targeted along with shopping bags, single-use cutlery and take-away packaging. “We are working on grants and sponsorships to launch this program.” She said the Ban the Bag campaign will promote the use of re-useable shopping bags and will include a bag-making challenge supported by Tourism Tofino that will test whether or not the West Coast can create 1,000 bags in time for the Pacific Rim Whale Festival in March. The Hang onto Your Butt campaign is aimed at eliminating cigarette pollution and features a unique partnership with TerraCycle, an organization that offers a variety of environmentally-minded programming including a Cigarette Waste Recycling Program. “The waste collected through the Cigarette Waste Recycling Program is recycled into a variety of industrial products, such as plastic pallets, and any remaining tobacco is recycled as compost,” according to TerraCycle’s website. Hall said Surfrider’s anti-cigarette waste program would help raise awareness of the impacts butts have locally. “A big part of the campaign is education. I don’t think an actual campaign or education around cigarette pollution has really been prominent in Ucluelet or Tofino,” she said. During her presentation in Tofino, Hall said Surfrider partnered with Ucluelet to install nine cigarette butt canisters throughout the community. She said Ucluelet’s public works crew empties the canisters and hands the butts off to Surfrider to recycle. “We hope that Tofino would do the same,” she said. “This wouldn’t just be a case of installing them and letting you guys empty them and that’s it, we plan on engaging the youth and doing lots of education at all of our beach cleanups and events throughout the year.” The canisters cost $100 each, according to Hall, and Tofino’s council agreed to buy one for their municipal hall immediately after Hall’s presentation. Coun. Greg Blanchette expressed admiration for the foundation’s quick rise. “Surfrider is really surging ahead in terms of volunteer engagement, community engagement and business engagement, in a way that, in my experience on the Coast, is basically unprecedented,” he said. “Congratulations on all of your successes.” Mayor Josie Osborne agreed. “I want to say thank you and really commend you, Michelle, for your leadership and Surfrider for everything that you do,” she said. “You really have gone above and beyond in terms of your community engagement and what I really appreciate is how positively everything is occurring.”

Did you know that, according to the Ocean Conservancy,  cigarette litter is not only the #1 item found during marine clean ups, but it is also the 4th deadliest ocean trash after fishing gear, plastic bags/cutlery and balloons? In fact, estimates suggest that globally, “1.69 BILLION pounds of butts wind up as toxic trash each year”  equating to as many as “4.95 trillion” butts. Certainly at a local level, cigarette litter is unsightly and a nuisance, but it also poses environmental problems as our storm sewers lead directly to local waterways.  Visualize what happens during a storm every time you walk past a littered storm sewer. We at ZuZu want to play a part in reducing cigarette litter in our downtown Barrie streets, one butt at a time. Our Terracycle Butt Collection receptacle is up and ready to receive. It’s already in use and we are encouraging smokers from near and far to place their cigarette litter in it as you pass by. But it’s only one and we need more available to make it easier and convenient to butt out. So we’re asking other business and property owners to invest a small amount and buy one ($100), mount it and let smokers know that we care about our downtown streets. It’s up to all of us to make a difference for our beautiful downtown.