Cigarette Recycling Program
The Austin Heights Business Improvement Association (Austin Heights BIA) is keeping cigarette butts off the street and out of landfills. Through TerraCycle Canada’s free, national Cigarette Waste Recycling Program, the Austin Heights BIA will ensure cigarette butts are properly disposed of and are given a second life through recycling.
TerraCycle is an international recycling company that finds innovative solutions for materials not typically accepted at municipal recycling facilities. The waste collected through the Cigarette Waste Recycling Program is recycled into a variety of industrial products, such as plastic lumber, and any remaining tobacco and paper is recycled as compost.
In exchange for reducing cigarette waste, collectors earn points for cigarette butts sent to TerraCycle, and can later redeem these points as a cash donation to any nonprofit organization of their choice. Community Ventures Society, which supports people with developmental disabilities and their families, will empty the receptacles as part of their arrangement with the BIA and will receive funds towards programming when they send the package to TerraCycle.
Through this program alone, TerraCycle Canada has donated over $70,000 back to various nonprofit organizations. Any city, organization or individual interested in reducing cigarette waste can learn more about TerraCycle.