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Recycling Cigarette Butts- Produce Jobs, Save Taxpayer Money-Reduce Litter

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Cigarette Butts

When a constituent came into Assemblyman Michael G. DenDekker’s office recently and suggested he propose a cigarette butt recycling program, Mr. DenDekker admits he “had a little chuckle.” Then a staffer, half joking, suggested a cigarette butt deposit, just as is done with bottles. But before completely dismissing the idea, Mr. DenDekker agreed “to see if there is a market on it.”

A little Googling and Mr. DenDekker discovered that in China, scientists had found that soaking cigarette butts in water creates a solution that can protect steel pipes used by the oil industry from corroding. In Brazil, a fashion designer, Alexandra Guerrero, cleans cigarette butts, dyes them and spins them with sheep wool into clothing. And in Ohio, an inventor has a patent pending to turn cigarette butts into adhesives and sealants.

Now two weeks later, Mr. DenDekker, a Democrat from Queens, has proposed a bill that would create a statewide cigarette butt recycling program. “There are two reasons to do it,” he said. “One is to create jobs, the other is to clean our environment a little.” Read the Full Story at the NY Times

He forgot to add- I actually use cigarette butts soaked in water to keep pests away from my plants. That works great.

I wonder if recycling were actually an option if we could actually keep the streets cleaner? I wonder how much taxpayer money we could save if we didn’t have to have someone picking up toxic waste everyday. I wonder how much cleaner our streets and neighborhoods would be if people actually disposed of cigarette butts.

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  2. Love reading articles on the world warming up to my life-long goal of this environmental nonprofit startup:

    Responsible Smokers Act – Ashtrays from Cigarette Butts, a self-sustaining solution within the problem! its a plus the Chinese want our byproduct to make rust preventer, glad to see, its falling in place nicely.

    Cant believe its really been 18 years since I’ve proposed this solution, many forums, thousands of personally written letters, Many connections made. Thanks to google and the internet, we have supporters globally, and we have not actually even set up yet.

    Currently in the works of gaining support with the company Terracycle, i would love to partner with them, they seem to have the business model down packed. The Ohio Man and I have been in contact for a few years, hope to form this Alliance in the mission to solve our common goals Cigarette Litter and its effects on the Environment

    I have been trying to start this nonprofit as i am born on Earth Day, so in a way this is the goal i gave to this planet, keep trying till it happens.

    Thanks to articles like yours, more and more people are becoming aware, that this is the best solution to this environmentally disastrous problem.