Stockton University

Stop Throwing Away Valued

Butts:
Join The Cigarette Butt Recycling
Community
Dominique Acilio, Gordon Sabol
April 8, 2016

Mission Statement:
Our mission statement is to reduce the amount of cigarette pollution
on the campus of Stockton University while also recycling the waste

Acilio, Sabol-1

from cigarettes. Reducing the amount of pollution caused by cigarettes

would help keep Stockton the green school it is known to be.
Table of Contents

I.
II.
III.
A.
B.
IV.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
V.
VI.

Abstract
Statement of Need
Project Rationale and Justification
Reduce Pollution to the Environment
Keep the Campus Clean
Detailed Project Description
6
Goals and Objectives
Terracycle
The Process
Cost/Rewards to Campus
Cigarette Butts and the Environment
Examples of Terracycle Being Implemented
References
Footnotes/Figures

Pg. 2
Pg. 2
Pg. 3
Pg. 4-

Pg. 7
Pg. 8-9

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Abstract
Cigarette butts are currently the most littered substance and are
considered to be a hazardous waste. This littered item not only makes the
community look dirty but has also been linked to water contamination and
other aquatic problems. Cigarette butt recycling is a new wave of accessing
products that were previously considered trash and ended up in landfills.
Terracycle is currently the most successful program that is transferring not
only cigarette butts but other non-easily recycles materials into a
commodity. Programs like this are beneficial ways to help keep the
community clean and environment cleaner then we have in the past. As New
Jerseys green University, Stockton would easily benefit from the program
that Terracycle is promoting. Recycling the products that were once known as
non-recyclable reduces the amount of waste that goes to landfills and
promotes a healthy environment. As multiple locations have already
implemented this program, Terracycle has become known as a reliable
company. Plant management can easily reroute the butts they collect and
send them into the program.
Statement of Need
Cigarette butts are the most frequently littered items and comprise
38% of all U.S. roadway litter and 30% of the litter at transitional places. In
2009, Keep America Beautifuls Littering Behavior in America, gathered
information about cigarette butt littering in specific areas such as
recreational areas, bars and restaurants, retail, and hospitals. The
observations shown that the overall littering rate for cigarette butts in 65%.
The data found that when a cigarette is littered, 35% of the time dropping
with intent is the most frequent strategy followed by the flick (27%) and
the stomp (27%). Smokers are more likely to litter if the environment
contains any other type of litter, not only cigarette butts. Also, the findings
concluded that hospital sites have the highest littering rates followed by
recreation areas, bars/restaurants, and then retail locations (Keep America
Beautiful, 2010).
As Stockton continues to become more sustainable, the use of cigarette butt
recycling could be implemented to reduce the amount of litter found on
campus. Stockton has reduced the locations where cigarette smoking is
allowed however, cigarette butts are easily moved via wind and other

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environmental factors which disperses the problem to other locations on

campus. Combating this issue is difficult when there is no incentive to use
receptacles currently, except for the beautification of the campus. It is clear
that anywhere individuals can sit cigarettes are flicked onto the grounds this
practice is rarely if ever cited as litter the butt is considered too insignificant
to warrant a citation. The only way to mitigate this issue is to get people to
see that proper disposal of ciggarette butts is a commodity just like
recycling a soda can or glass bottle. Benefits of how recycling cigarette butts
reduces the amount of litter around campus could help keep stockton known
as a green campus.

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Project Rationale and Justification

Reduce Pollution to the Environment:
Trillions of cigarette butts are generated each year throughout the
world and pose a significant problem with disposal. Cigarette butts are
considered a hazardous waste and comprise an estimated 30% of the
total litter along the coasts, waterways, and on land of the United
States. There are three components of a discarded cigarette butt; the
tobacco, the filter, and the paper wrap. All three parts presents its own
environmental concerns. The filters of the cigarette poses the biggest
threat to the environment. It degrade very slowly which allows the it to
become accumulated with mass of potentially toxic waste. The toxic
substances are then leached from the filter and tobacco residue that
pollutes waterways and potentially ground water. Also, the butts can
collect in storm drains that may lead to waterways and affect marine
life (Barnes, 2011).
Currently, landfills or incineration are used to dispose cigarette butt
waste. However, these methods have not shown to be universally
sustainable or economically feasible. The Environmental Protection
Agency has standards that require all landfills to be designed to
prevent ground water leaks. However, holes can be punctured in the
liner during construction, from the pressure of the garbage on the liner,
or the liner could deteriorate over time all in which can cause leaks.
From these leaks, chemicals can leach into the soil and groundwater.
According to the results of a survey done, 82% of all landfills in the
United States leak and 41% of the landfill have a leak that is larger
that 1 square foot (Smith, 2015).
It is unknown how many cigarette butts end up in landfills, but it is
expected to be a very large number and growing tremendously. It is
known that it takes about 10-15 years for a cigarette butt to break
down in a landfill, but the cellulose acetate in the filters has a longer
half life. The tobacco industrys cigarette programs has three goals; to
prevent cigarette litter from impacting the social acceptability of
smoking, to remove cigarette litter as an issue leading to
bans/restrictions, and to ensure that the tobacco industry was not held
practically or financially responsible for cigarette litter (Smith, 2011).

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Since the industry believes that cigarette litter is the sole responsibility
of the user, it is important to educate and have receptacles on sight to
reduce the amount of litter. Through the implementation of cigarette
recycling receptacles, the environmental impact could be greatly
reduced.
Keep the Campus Clean:
Stockton University is known as an innovator in sustainable practices in
New Jersey. It has led the way in the application of new and alternative
technologies to reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and the use of
fossil fuel. On campus, there are solar panels, geothermal heat pump
system and aquifer thermal energy storage project (ATES) which all
allow Stockton to reduce the campuss ecological footprint.
Stockton has 375 pairs trash receptacles on campus and around the
housing developments. Each pair consists of a blue receptacle, which is
for recycling, and a green receptacle, which is for trash. Providing the
campus attendees with proper trash receptacle has kept the area in
and around campus clean and litter free. However, even though the
campus has smoking areas, the campus is still littered with cigarette
butts from Flickers or individuals who disregard their surroundings
and throw cigarette butts wherever they please. Implementing a
cigarette butt recycling program on campus could greatly reduce the
un-appealing sight of discarded cigarettes found on the ground.

Detailed Project Description

Goals and Objectives:
The main goal of this project is to keep Stockton University clean and
litter free. Stockton already participates in recycling and has proposals
suggesting composting. Through the company called Terracycle,
recycling cigarette butts could be easily achieved and added to our
portfolio. Recycling containers already placed in locations where
cigarette smoking is most common; such as the parking lots and the
gazebos would be used in the program.
Terracycle:

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Terracycle is a recycling program based out of New Jersey and was

founded by a 20-year old student in 2002 with a mission the idea of
waste. By creating collection programs known as Brigades, waste
that is known to be non-recyclable is collected and turned into new
products. There are currently over 40 brigade programs with more
products being recycled daily. In 2012, Terracycle started a program to
collect and recycle cigarette butts.
The Process:
The process to implement cigarette recycling on the campus of
Stockton University is actually really simple. Once an account is
created, collecting and recycling can start. Stockton currently has
cigarette receptacles located at the gazebos. These receptacles can
easily be dumped into a thick trash bag then put into a shipping box
and shipped through UPS to Terracycle where they will transform the
litter into a new product. A shipping label can be downloaded free from
Stocktons Terracycle account. Before shipping it is important to make
sure all cigarettes are fully extinguished. Terracycle accepts the
following cigarette waste; extinguished cigarettes, inner foil packaging,
cigarette filters, loose tobacco pouches, outer plastic packaging, rolling
papers, and ash.
Once the cigarette butts are collected, the cigarettes and packaging
are separated by composition and then melted. Many cigarette butts
are made out of cellulose acetate, which is a high grade plastic. Once
melted down, this plastic can be made into many different products
such as sunglasses. The organic waste such as ash and the remaining
tobacco are then composted in a specialized process (Terracycle,
2012).
Cost/rewards to Campus:
For every pound of cigarette waste collected, Santa Fe Natural
Tobacco Company, the sponsor of Cigarette Waste Brigade, donates
$1.00 towards the Keep America Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention
Program. - Keep America Beautiful, 2010
Dave Wood head of grounds management for Stocktons main campus
informed us that there are approximately 10 designated smoking
gazebos on campus, with approximately 2 receptacles each. These

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receptacles are emptied once a month year round, they are almost
always completely full capable of holding; 6.7 gallons or about 8000
cigarette butts however many people still disregard the use of these.
Grounds staff spends approximately 2 hours every 2 weeks sweeping
up after cigarette Flickers.
Posting incentives can help raise awareness in the community, an
Active seasonal collection challenge where students could collect and
receive rewards by weight or count; every college student could use a
little extra beer money! Giving people a reason to pick butts of the
grounds, this sort of program can reach beyond the campus and into
the community, Stockton can have a collection drop off where locals
who may collect butts when walking along the roadways during their
daily commutes, litter that used to simply be walked over becomes a
commodity that can be turned into cash just like the 5 to 10 Cents
aluminum cans and glass bottles are worth in certain states.
Cigarette Butts and the Environment:
Cigarette butts have more than just a negative appeal when littered on
the ground but have a toxic impact to local fauna. There is no available
direct evidence studies, however when placing just a few cigarette
buds in a 10 gallon fish tank the resulting exposure resulted in death
for both Macro and Micro organisms within 24 hours, this was a study
that I have personally conducted when I was a highschool student.

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Examples of Terracycle Being Implemented:

In 2012, the city of Vancouver launched a pilot program with Terracycle
to recycle cigarette butts. TerraCycle will supply the receptacles, cover
costs for installing and emptying them and collect the butts while
providing employment through two inner-city charities. 110 cigarette
butt recycling receptacles were installed throughout the city where
littering has been a nuisance. With the help of Terracycle, Vancouver
has a goal to make it the greenest city by 2020. However, as of 2014,
the city has scaled back from their initial pilot program. The lack of
education and incentives for the citizens of the city has set back
Vancouver from their goal (Bennet, 2014)
Further implementation of the terracycle programs was seen in 2013.
Hackensack University Medical Center was the first hospital to partner
with Terracycle to keep un-recyclables such as keyboards and mice,
diaper packaging, chip bags and writing utensils out of landfills.
(HackensackUMC) With the continued depletion of limited resources,
reaching a larger percentage of trash and giving it an opportunity to
be recycled is stepping in the right direction.

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References
Smith, Elizabeth A., P. A. McDaniel, Covering their butts: responses to the
cigarette litter problem, 2011, Tobacco Control, Volume 20, 100-106
Keep America Beautiful, Key findings: cigarette butt litter, 2010, Litter in
America: Results from the Nations Largest Litter Study, www.kab.org
Barnes, R. L. (2011). Regulating the disposal of cigarette butts as toxic
hazardous waste. Tobacco Control, 20 Suppl 1(Supplement 1), i45-i48.
doi:10.1136/tc.2010.041301
Smith, Nathaniel, L. Jack, K, Aman, J. Brandon, Cigarette disposal
investigation and assessment, 2015, UBC Undergraduate Research, APSCTechnology Society, 1-55
Terracycle, Cigarette Waste Recycling Program, (2012). Retrieved from
http://www.terracycle.ca/en-CA/brigades/cigarette-waste-brigade.html ,
http://sustainability.tufts.edu/terracycle/
Bennett, J. (2014). Doctor wants B.C. to butt in on Vancouvers cigarette
recycling program. Retrieved from
http://globalnews.ca/news/1366861/vancouvers-cigarette-butt-recyclingprogram-drawscriticism/
Register, Kathleen (2000). Cigarette Butts as Litter - Toxic as Well as Ugly".
Underwater Naturalist" Bulletin of the American Littoral Society. Volume 25,
Number 2. http://www.cigarettelitter.org/index.asp?pagename=un
April 10, 2013. HackensackUMC Partners with Terracycle to Recycle the
Unrecyclable. http://www.hackensackumc.org/hackensackumc-partners-withterracycle-to-recycle-the-unrecyclable/

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Footnotes/Figures

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Acilio, Sabol-12

Some Statistics Courtesy of (Register, K.

2000)
Number of filters

ounces/pounds
20

milliliters/liters
.12 oz

10ml

3.75 lbs

51 liters

1,000,000

375 lbs

500 liters

100,000,000

37,500 lbs

50,000 liters

10,000,000,000

3,750,000 lbs

5,000,000 liters

100,000,000,000

37,500,000 lbs

50,000,000 liters

470,000,000,000

176,250,000 lbs

235,000,000 liters

1,000,000,000,000

375,000,000 lbs

500,000,000 liters

5,608,000,000,000

2,103,000,000 lbs

2,804,000,000 liters

(one pack)

10,000
(one year's consumption for
one smoker)

(Number of cigarettes
smoked in the U.S. in 1998)

(1998 world cigarette

production)