The company TerraCycle, for example, has devised ways of collecting waste like ocean plastics, cigarette butts, chewing gum and even dirty diapers, and then processing it so it can have a new life.

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.

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.  

Though he's been a lifelong smoker, the Azusa resident was raised to be health-conscious and nature-minded, so the fact that more than a third of all cigarette butts end up as roadway litter didn't settle with him. "If they (cigarette butts) end up in a landfill they take a long time to decompose," Simpson said. "The country needs to get into recycling, there's no respect or consideration for other people and the environment." So when he got a flier in the mail about the Cigarette Waste Brigade, a national program to collect cigarette butts for recycling, he was interested. The program is a partnership between TerraCycle Inc., a "up-cycling" and recycling company, and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, which manufactures Natural American Spirit cigarettes. Volunteers collect cigarette butts, filters, ash, rolling paper and other cigarette-related trash -- everything except the cardboard carton -- and mail it, postage paid, to TerraCycle, which recycles the waste into industrial pallets, the company said in a statement. For Simpson, the initial interest was monetary. TerraCycle, which has Brigades for a variety of hard-to-recycle items, donates $1 for every pound of cigarette waste to Keep America Beautiful, a nonprofit that focuses on preventing litter and community improvement. "I thought (turning in the cigarette butts) would be a little extra income, but when I found out they're not giving any pay I got disappointed," he admitted. "But then I thought about it and I said, you know, it's for the environment, not my pocketbook, so I'm still doing it." The pack-a-day smoker started collecting cigarette butts in December and, with a little help from friends, he collected about 3,865 butts. After the initial satisfaction of turning in a shipment of cigarette waste, he started thinking bigger. "I'm trying to get some casinos involved because they have smoking areas and I thought, instead of just throwing them away, the casinos can just save them and I'll pick them up and be in charge of sending them to the company," he said. "They have smoking areas where you have to make sure the cigarette is put out and you throw it in a trash can. "I'm trying to get the country's frame of mind changed to, instead of putting them in a trash can, put them in a bucket." For more information about the Cigarette Waste Brigade, go to terracycle.com.

Though he's been a lifelong smoker, the Azusa resident was raised to be health-conscious and nature-minded, so the fact that more than a third of all cigarette butts end up as roadway litter didn't settle with him. "If they (cigarette butts) end up in a landfill they take a long time to decompose," Simpson said. "The country needs to get into recycling, there's no respect or consideration for other people and the environment." So when he got a flier in the mail about the Cigarette Waste Brigade, a national program to collect cigarette butts for recycling, he was interested. The program is a partnership between TerraCycle Inc., a "up-cycling" and recycling company, and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, which manufactures Natural American Spirit cigarettes. Volunteers collect cigarette butts, filters, ash, rolling paper and other cigarette-related trash -- everything except the cardboard carton -- and mail it, postage paid, to TerraCycle, which recycles the waste into industrial pallets, the company said in a statement. For Simpson, the initial interest was monetary. TerraCycle, which has Brigades for a variety of hard-to-recycle items, donates $1 for every pound of cigarette waste to Keep America Beautiful, a nonprofit that focuses on preventing litter and community improvement. "I thought (turning in the cigarette butts) would be a little extra income, but when I found out they're not giving any pay I got disappointed," he admitted. "But then I thought about it and I said, you know, it's for the environment, not my pocketbook, so I'm still doing it." The pack-a-day smoker started collecting cigarette butts in December and, with a little help from friends, he collected about 3,865 butts. After the initial satisfaction of turning in a shipment of cigarette waste, he started thinking bigger. "I'm trying to get some casinos involved because they have smoking areas and I thought, instead of just throwing them away, the casinos can just save them and I'll pick them up and be in charge of sending them to the company," he said. "They have smoking areas where you have to make sure the cigarette is put out and you throw it in a trash can. "I'm trying to get the country's frame of mind changed to, instead of putting them in a trash can, put them in a bucket." For more information about the Cigarette Waste Brigade, go to terracycle.com.

AZUSA - Kym Simpson wants to make sure his butt is useful. That is, his cigarette butt. Though he's been a lifelong smoker, the Azusa resident was raised to be health-conscious and nature-minded, so the fact that more than a third of all cigarette butts end up as roadway litter didn't settle with him. "If they (cigarette butts) end up in a landfill they take a long time to decompose," Simpson said. "The country needs to get into recycling, there's no respect or consideration for other people and the environment." So when he got a flier in the mail about the Cigarette Waste Brigade, a national program to collect cigarette butts for recycling, he was interested. The program is a partnership between TerraCycle Inc., a "up-cycling" and recycling company, and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, which manufactures Natural American Spirit cigarettes. Volunteers collect cigarette butts, filters, ash, rolling paper and other cigarette-related trash -- everything except the cardboard carton -- and mail it, postage paid, to TerraCycle, which recycles the waste into industrial pallets, the company said in a statement. For Simpson, the initial interest was monetary. TerraCycle, which has Brigades for a variety of hard-to-recycle items, donates $1 for every pound of cigarette waste to Keep America Beautiful, a nonprofit that focuses on preventing litter and community improvement. "I thought (turning in the cigarette butts) would be a little extra income, but when I found out they're not giving any pay I got disappointed," he admitted. "But then I thought about it and I said, you know, it's for the environment, not my pocketbook, so I'm still doing it." The pack-a-day smoker started collecting cigarette butts in December and, with a little help from friends, he collected about 3,865 butts. After the initial satisfaction of turning in a shipment of cigarette waste, he started thinking bigger. "I'm trying to get some casinos involved because they have smoking areas and I thought, instead of just throwing them away, the casinos can just save them and I'll pick them up and be in charge of sending them to the company," he said. "They have smoking areas where you have to make sure the cigarette is put out and you throw it in a trash can. "I'm trying to get the country's frame of mind changed to, instead of putting them in a trash can, put them in a bucket." For more information about the Cigarette Waste Brigade, go to terracycle.com.

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. 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." 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.

TerraCycle created recycling programs called “Brigades” for previously non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle waste. It began a partnership with Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company (SFNTC) last November to launch the first US cigarette-waste recycling program. “SFNTC has a long-standing commitment to environmental sustainability, and we were looking for a way to further bring that to life when we learned about TerraCycle's method to recycle certain types of cigarette waste,” says director of communications Seth Moskowitz. Organizations or individuals can sign-up for free on TerraCycle's website to become members of the “Cigarette Waste Brigade” to collect and ship the waste to TerraCycle. TerraCycle pays for shipping and donates $1 for every pound collected to Keep America Beautiful's anti-cigarette litter program. “We run the recycling program, host the website, and promote the program,” explains Albe Zakes, TerraCycle's global VP of media relations. “Our goals include driving sign-ups and participation and informing the industry of the advancement in cigarette waste recycling.”

TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky works in his office at the company's headquarters in Trenton, New Jersey, on January 10, 2013. TerraCycle Inc., a company devoted to creating recycling systems for hard-to-recycle waste, has created an alternative to leaving cigarette butts on roadways or putting them into landfills. Recycling entrepreneur Tom Szaky is stubbing out the world's cigarette problem—one butt at a time.