Baltimore is one of many cities that TerraCycle has teamed up with in recent years as part of its Cigarette Waste Brigade program. Other participants include Vancouver, Seattle, St. Louis, New Orleans,Columbia, MO and Salem, MA. For every pound collected, $1 is donated to the Keep America Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention Program.

Dive Brief: The city of Columbia MO's Downtown Community Improvement District has bought and installed 18 cigarette boxes downtown to collect filters and has ordered 32 more at $50 each from TerraCycle, a Trenton, NJ recycling company. The cigarette waste is shipped to TerraCycle's New Jersey facility, then moved off site for processing. The remaining paper and tobacco are composted. The plastic is melted and turned into pellets. And the filters are converted to industrial products like plastic lumber and railroad ties.

TerraCycle's Cigarette Waste Brigade has collected nearly 36 million units of cigarette butts to date. By using funding from Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, TerraCycle has the ability to turn the cigarette waste into plastic pellets, while composting the leftover tobacco. Additionally, for every pound of cigarette waste collected, Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company donates $1 to the Keep America Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention Program.