Germain said Friday that the cigarette butts will be collected every seven days from the receptacles and sent to TerraCycle, a Trenton, New Jersey-based recycling company that will use them to make new products like benches and tables. "It's the first municipal cigarette recycling program on Long Island," Germain said as she stood next to a receptacle recently installed at a Port Washington bus stop.

At the same time, I learned consumers are twice as likely to recycle in the kitchen as opposed to the bathroom. Knowing this, our idea was to put an heirloom seed packet inside the bottle to encourage consumers to interact with the product, break open the bottle to get the seeds and consciously think about what to do with each component; the paper and plastic go in their respective recycling bins and the pump can be sent to TerraCycle free of charge.

Germain said Friday that the cigarette butts will be collected every seven days from the receptacles and sent to TerraCycle, a Trenton, New Jersey-based company that will use them to make new products like benches and tables.

• TerraCycle: Trenton, N.J.-based company collects discarded cigarette butts and turns them into plastic shipping pallets, park benches, picnic tables and other products. terracycle.com

Cigarette butts collected from cleanups are packaged and shipped to TerraCycle, a company that collects hard-to-recycle waste materials and recycles them into new items like park benches.

Companies like TerraCycle provide Zero Waste Boxes for people to take matters into their own hands and recycle e-cigarettes at their home or office. TerraCycle collects discarded e-cigarettes using purchasable waste boxes, ranging from $47 for an individual pouch to $1,640 for a much larger pallet, typically used by several people over time. The user, or users then ship the disposed e-cigarettes to the company, and the collected waste is mechanically or manually separated into metals and plastics and later melted to be recycled. While some people might be discouraged from buying their own waste box for financial reasons, the company is working with a variety of brand partners to make their recycling solutions available for free to everyone.

Companies like TerraCycle provide Zero Waste Boxes for people to take matters into their own hands and recycle e-cigarettes at their home or office. TerraCycle collects discarded e-cigarettes using purchasable waste boxes, ranging from $47 for an individual pouch to $1,640 for a much larger pallet, typically used by several people over time. The user, or users then ship the disposed e-cigarettes to the company, and the collected waste is mechanically or manually separated into metals and plastics and later melted to be recycled. While some people might be discouraged from buying their own waste box for financial reasons, the company is working with a variety of brand partners to make their recycling solutions available for free to everyone.

Terracycle, a New Jersey-based company, will then separate the ash, tobacco and rolling paper and turn all of it into industrial fertilizer. The cigarette filters will help create plastic shipping palettes and outdoor furniture. What’s more, 60,000 butts make a park bench and 165,000 a picnic table, Gusoff reported.

TerraCycle, an East Coast firm that specializes in recycling items typically seen as "non-recyclable," (such as used oral-hygiene products), has partnered with CVS pharmacies, Starlight Children's Foundation and Colgate-Palmolive in the nationwide recycling effort.

While walking along the coast, one can come across broken bottles, plastic toys and food wrappers among others, but cigarette butts appear to be the most common.

POLLUTION | 05/10/19   In fact, cigarette butts are a prevalent, lasting, and toxic form of marine debris, that can potentially harm marine organisms and their environments. Cigarette butts initially reach the waterways through their improper disposal on beaches, rivers and land and are transported to the coats by rainwater.   Moreover, the 2018 International Coastal Cleanup Report, by the Ocean Conservancy reported that 2,412,151 cigarette butts were collected in 2017 universally, which constitutes an increase from the 2016 number of 1,863,838 butts worldwide.   Cigarette filters contain a plastic-like material called cellulose acetate which on one hand may be easy in its production, but is not easily degradable on the other hand. Notably, the fibers in the filters act just like plastic in the ocean. The UV rays from the sun break down the fibers into smaller chunks that don't vanish from the ocean, which eventually translates to one single filter ending up to many tiny micro-plastics in the waters.   The U.S. Federal government created the NOAA Marine Debris Program in order to address the marine debris problem.   NOAA recommends that there are some handful tips about what we can do in order to keep the oceans free form cigarette butts, lighters and cigar tips, such as:

• If you are a smoker, place your cigarette butt in a proper receptacle or buy a pocket ashtray for that matter. This can be like a metal box or vinyl purse that fits in your pocket or bag until you potentially properly dispose them in the trash.
• Recycle the butts if possible. Check to see if there any schemes in your area. The City of Vancouver, and other organizations like TerraCycle, will actually recycle your filters for you.
• Organize cleanups with your local community and document your findings in the Marine Debris Tracker App. Moreover, communicate the importance of proper disposal in your own community.