Dive Brief:
- Today, Mayor Kim Driscoll kicks off "Park Your Butts," a new marketing campaign to keep cigarette butts off the streets of Salem, MA. The campaign aims to enlist the help of local business owners and residents to increase cigarette bin usage, and to also expand cigarette recycling outside of the downtown district.
- Salem officials placed cigarette collection bins in 70 locations throughout the downtown area last year, and are now relocating the bins to more strategic areas. The city also placed bright decals on the receptacles to make them more noticeable.
- Once cigarette receptacles are full, the butts are sent to TerraCycle in Trenton, NJ, where they are recycled into industrial-grade plastic goods.
Dive Insight:t
TerraCycle's Cigarette Waste Brigade has collected nearly 36 million units of cigarette butts to date. By using funding from Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, TerraCycle has the ability to turn the cigarette waste into plastic pellets, while composting the leftover tobacco. Additionally, for every pound of cigarette waste collected, Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company donates $1 to the Keep America Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention Program.
TerraCycle has already worked closely with major American cities — including New Orleans, Seattle, and St. Louis — to ensure that this waste stays off the street and is repurposed into a renewable product.
"Cigarette waste is one of the most common forms of litter on our streets and sidewalks," said Mayor Driscoll on the city's website. "Having these receptacles available and more strategically situated and labeled should provide us one more tool in our efforts to keep our City clean, while maintaining our commitment to being green and eliminating our overall trash output."
