In partnership with TerraCycle Inc., a New Jersey recycler, the nonprofit group recently installed 15 long, gray receptacles for recycling cigarette butts. The association invested about $1,000 in the program, the first of its kind in Los Angeles. It is aimed at taking a small step toward tackling the huge problem of cigarette waste. “We’re trying to change behavior here,” said Andrew Thomas, the association’s executive director. “We have a lot of smokers in Westwood, for better or worse.”

We are all familiar with the staples of the recycling industry: plastic, paper, metals, and glass. Virtually everything you find on store shelves uses these materials in some form, and yet many of them are unrecyclable either because of their design or because the combination of materials used in their manufacturing makes them difficult to break down. But one company is steadily proving that it’s possible to recycle virtually everything we discard on a daily basis.

Smoke is part of the ambience at Connecticut's casinos because some people like to have a few cigarettes while they gamble. How many cigarettes?

TerraCycle collects cigarette waste at over 6,000 locations, resulting in the diversion of 23.4 million cigarette butts from landfills. In November 2013, the sustainability company launched the "Cigarette Waste Brigade" in Vancouver, Canada - its first butt recycling program. Since then, the project has expanded to include other cities.

The MID, which collects more than 2,200 gallons of trash downtown on any given day, is working with a company called TerraCycle to recycle the butts. The 14-year-old New Jersey company works with a variety of companies to collect difficult-to-recycle packaging and products and repurposes the material.

The US City of New Orleans and the city’s Downtown Development District (DDD) are launching a pilot program to collect and recycle cigarette butts using an extension of TerraCycle’s Cigarette Waste Brigade – a nationwide, mail-in recycling program that is sponsored by Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co, according to a NACS (Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing) story. New Orleans is the first city in the US to implement a city-wide collection system, which launched last week with the installation of 50 new cigarette-recycling receptacles on several blocks in the city’s Downtown District. Cigarette butts collected through the nationwide program are recycled into a variety of industrial products, such as plastic pallets. Any remaining tobacco is subjected to tobacco-specific composting methods. The entire program is free to the city and its tax-payers, as TerraCycle supplies the receptacles and Santa Fe, through the Cigarette Waste Brigade, covers the ongoing program costs. Additionally, for every pound of cigarette waste collected, $4 is to be donated to the DDD to help fund green jobs throughout the city.

NEW ORLEANS – The City of New Orleans and the city’s Downtown Development District are launching a pilot program to collect and recycle cigarette butts, via an extension of TerraCycle’s Cigarette Waste Brigade — a nationwide, mail-in recycling program that is sponsored by Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company. New Orleans is the first city in the United States to implement a city-wide collection system, which launched this week with the installation of 50 new cigarette-recycling receptacles on several blocks in the city’s Downtown District. The receptacles will be easily identified with stickers that say “Recycle Your Butts Here.” Cigarette butts collected through the nationwide program are recycled into a variety of industrial products, such as plastic pallets. Any remaining tobacco is repurposed via tobacco-specific composting methods. The entire program is free to the city and its tax-payers, as TerraCycle supplies the receptacles and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, through the Cigarette Waste Brigade, covers the ongoing program costs. Additionally, for every pound of cigarette waste collected, $4 will be donated to the DDD to help fund green jobs throughout the city.

Cigarette butts are one of the most commonly discarded nuisances in the United States, but with the help of TerraCycle and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, smokers can now cut down on this unsightly trash at offices, restaurants, and even at home. TerraCycle accepts everything from extinguished cigarettes to cellophane package linings and turns them into a variety of industrial products.