New Orleans testing butts recycling

The US City of New Orleans and the city’s Downtown Development District (DDD) are launching a pilot program to collect and recycle cigarette butts using an extension of TerraCycle’s Cigarette Waste Brigade – a nationwide, mail-in recycling program that is sponsored by Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co, according to a NACS (Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing) story.

New Orleans is the first city in the US to implement a city-wide collection system, which launched last week with the installation of 50 new cigarette-recycling receptacles on several blocks in the city’s Downtown District.

Cigarette butts collected through the nationwide program are recycled into a variety of industrial products, such as plastic pallets. Any remaining tobacco is subjected to tobacco-specific composting methods.

The entire program is free to the city and its tax-payers, as TerraCycle supplies the receptacles and Santa Fe, through the Cigarette Waste Brigade, covers the ongoing program costs.

Additionally, for every pound of cigarette waste collected, $4 is to be donated to the DDD to help fund green jobs throughout the city.