Tobacco firm JTI is joining with a recycling specialist to provide people across the UK with a free way to recycle cigarette butts and smokers’ waste.
The Cigarette Waste Brigade is a partnership between JTI and TerraCycle, a specialist in dealing with hard-to-recycle materials. Cigarette butts are not biodegradable but the new collaboration makes the waste recyclable in the UK for the first time. All the collected cigarette waste will be recycled by TerraCycle into a variety of useful plastic products, such as delivery pallets, and any remaining tobacco or paper will be composted.
Retailers, other businesses, community members and consumers wishing to clean up litter hot-spots and pave the way for similar action in their local community can sign up to the Cigarette Waste Brigade at www.terracycle.co.uk to collect cigarette waste and send it to TerraCycle for free. Cigarette butts, cigar butts, ash, used and unused cigarette filters, rolling paper, inner foil packaging and outer plastic packaging will all be accepted.
Charlie Cunningham Reid, head of corporate affairs and communications at JTI UK said: “This initiative will encourage smokers to make the responsible choice of recycling their cigarette waste and reduce the number of cigarette butts that are littered in communities around the UK. The Cigarette Waste Brigade is also a great opportunity for retailers to play a prominent role in their local communities by recycling cigarette waste that is being generated near their premises.”
TerraCycle CEO and founder, Tom Szaky said: “Thanks to the support of JTI the Cigarette Waste Brigade has the potential to transform communities across the UK, by drastically reducing the amount of cigarette waste that is littered. At the same time it also provides a recycling solution for cigarette butts that would have ultimately ended up in landfill anyway.”
