Uptown Saint John is taking a unique approach to try and reduce the amount of cigarette butt litter.
The business improvement association is rolling out 18 pole-mounted cylinders for people to place cigarette remnants.
Executive Director Nancy Tissington said the initiative is a partnership with U.S.-based recycling company TerraCycle.
Tissington said staff from Uptown Saint John will collect the cigarette butts and send them to TerraCycle to be recycled.
“There is plastic, a lot of plastic in cigarette butts, and so they take those out, and they recycle them into pallets and benches and other types of outdoor furniture,” the executive director said in an interview.
The tobacco and paper in the cigarette butts are then sent off to be composted, she said.
TerraCycle sent the cylinders for free and will cover the costs of shipping the cigarette butts.
Tissington noted that cigarette butt litter is probably the biggest complaint her organization receives.
“What I’ve noticed uptown is a lot of people are using the flowerpots to put their cigarette butts, and I think it’s because there’s just actually no place to put your cigarette butt, and people don’t want to put them in the wastebaskets for fear of perhaps igniting something,” she said.
Tissington said she hopes other municipalities and organizations may look at taking part in the program as well.
