In America, cigarette butts are the most littered item on U.S. roadways so that Sante Fe Natural Tobacco Co. and TerraCycle Inc. are recently team up as concern of this problem. There will be a project to create an alternative to leave cigarette butts on roadways or putting them into landfills. In the project, Tobacco Company will be a sponsor for TerraCycle. To solve waste issues and eliminate the idea of waste is Terracycle’s mission.
As tobacco company is a main sponsor, TerraCycle’s Cigarette Waste Brigade will be allowed both individuals and groups to collect cigarette waste, print a prepaid shipping label and then mail the cigarettes to TerraCycle. Accordingly, those cigarettes will be turned into new products such as shipping pallets, railroad ties, plastic lumber and ash trays.
For TerraCycle, cigarettes have been so long on the items list to take action as company’s mission because they believe that less desirable forms of waste should be concerned of as well as another waste.
“We started out doing a lot of consumer packaging and we really wanted to take on some more serious issues. There is no more serious of an environmental issue when it comes to litter and waste than cigarette butts,” Albe Zakes, Global VP of Media Relations for TerraCycle, said.
There will be two ways of cigarette’s target. First is cigarette waste that has already been littered by working with anti-litter groups and beach clean-up efforts. Second are the larger facilities where cigarettes are consumed in a large quantity such as shopping malls, office parks and bars.
“Because of how many cigarettes are consumed and because of the rate of consumption, we do expect this to be a very, very impactful and patroned program,” Zakes said. “The goal is to collect hundreds of millions of butts, if not more. We want to make a dent. Unless you’re collecting hundreds of millions of butts, you’re not making a dent.”
For those who age over 21, TerraCycle is kindly to invite you to visit its website for signing up for the brigrade if you are interested in getting involved.
