Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. (SFNTC) teams up with TerraCycle, a world leader in developing solutions for hard-to-recycle materials, to do something about cigarette butt litter. According to Keep America Beautiful (KAB), 65 percent of all cigarette butts are disposed of improperly. But thanks to another environmental breakthrough by TerraCycle, cigarette litter can now be recycled. With funding from SFNTC, TerraCycle is launching a national program to collect and recycle cigarette waste. The Cigarette Waste Brigade will divert used cigarette butts from landfills. By sponsoring this program, SFNTC is not only taking responsibility for the end-life of its products, but also for the products of its competitors.

A subsidiary of the nation's second largest cigarette make Reynolds American Inc., is funding a national recycling program to reward do-gooders for cleaning up tobacco waste and turn cigarette butts into pellets used to make items such as plastic shipping pallets, railroad ties, and park benches

Trenton company at forefront in recycling of trash stream scourge

TerraCycle recycles the most littered item in the US: cigarette butts.

Founded in 2001 by CEO Tom Szaky, TerraCycle's anti-butt campaign, dubbed Cigarette Waste Brigade, is a essentially a war on the seemingly countless discarded cancer sticks that litter our beaches, streets, and waterways. All parts of the extinguished cigarettes—the filters, the outer plastic packaging, the inner foil packaging, the rolling paper, and, yes, even the ashes—are collected by registered "brigades," which are located all over the world. The brigades ship the cigarette detritus to TerraCycle, which then melts and recycles then into plastic lumber, pallets, bins, and ashtrays. A house, for example, could be framed from this type of recycled material. Sponsored by the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, TerraCycle's Cigarette Brigade aims to work with more than 20 million people already collecting various types of waste for them in over 20 countries. “We certainly hope that TerraCycle is becoming a global spotlight on the issue of waste in our society!," said Albe Zakes, the company's Global VP and Media Relations. "Education and awareness are the basis of evolution and we find that many average consumers are simply unaware of the massive size and impact of waste in our consumer driven economy."

They account for 38 percent of all roadside litter by count, according to one study, and they're the most commonly picked up item during an annual coastal cleanup. Cigarette butts are truly nasty piece of trash, but a new program from TerraCycle seeks to collect and recycle this ubiquitous garbage. With funding from Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. (makers of American Spirit-brand cigarettes), New Jersey-based TerraCycle, a company that finds ways to recycle difficult-to-recycle materials, has a found a way to keep cigarette butts from landfills. Under the Cigarette Waste Brigade, people can sign up to collect all parts of extinguished cigarettes, including filters, partial cigarettes, outer plastic packaging, inner foil packing, rolling paper, loose tobacco pouches and ash. Brigadiers put the cigarette refuse into a plastic bag, put it in a shipping package, log onto TerraCycle's website to print out free shipping labels and then send the butts off to be recycled.  Individuals, nonprofit groups, as well as restaurants and other businesses can sign up for the program. As with other TerraCycle brigades, participants can send their refuse in to TerraCycle, and the company will direct money to a school or charity of the participants' choosing. However, with the Cigarette Waste Brigade, TerraCycle will send a dollar to Keep America Beautiful for every pound of cigarette refuse received. TerraCycle adopted this arrangement out of concerns that participants would be incentivized to smoke to support a school or charity under its usual terms. TerraCycle estimates that a pound is equivalent to a thousand cigarette butts. The collected waste will be recycled into a variety of industrial products, such as plastic pallets, and any remaining tobacco will be re-worked into tobacco composting.