Recycling Company Stubs Out Cigarette Garbage

Cigarette butts are an urban nuisance but one company has a solution it says is good for the environment -- and business. Recyclers Terracycle have figured out how to convert filters into saleable items -- including ashtrays -- and clean up the streets, to boot.

Published

4 months ago

Categories

Science

Topics

Green, Environment, Science

Transcript

SUGGESTED SCRIPT: Smokers get to enjoy their cigarettes -- but leave their butts littering streets and sidewalks everywhere. But finally, someone's found use for them. Terracycle is turning used cigarettes into plastic. Most cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate, which Terracycle blends with its other recycled plastics to make everything from lumber, to industrial pallets. SOUNDBITE 1 Ernie Simpson (man), Vice President, Research and Development (English, 14 sec): "These feel and look just like regular plastic pellets. There's a slight smell of tobacco that is associated with the plastic, but it's a smell that can be masked if necessary." Terracycle's mission is to take the toughest trash and turn it into something useful -- and profitable. Many of its products are "upcycled," and retain some of their original traits -- items like eyeglass chandeliers and skirts made from packaging. The company's headquarters even uses trash as low-budget decor. SOUNDBITE 2 Tom Szaky (man), Terracycle founder and CEO (English, 10 sec): "I have this very weird tendency that when I go around the world, like when I land in a city, the first thing I do is look in the garbage can. Because that's my opportunity: Anything that goes to waste." And there's no shortage of opportunities with cigarettes. Trillions are smoked each year. Terracycle takes the cigarette butts, composts their organic components and radiates the rest. It's a process the company says is no more energy-intensive than traditional recycling. Though less than a year old, the program is already a hit with tobacco companies and green groups who provide support. SOUNDBITE 3 Tom Szaky (man) Terracycle founder and CEO (English, 22 sec): "Not only was there huge response from individuals, businesses but especially NGOs. In Canada, one-third of all the cigarettes we've collected have come from groups like the World Wildlife Fund, from Ocean Conservancy, from all these places that do cleanup projects and instead of throwing the cigarettes they collect out, they now send them to us to be recycled." Szaky says the company turns a modest profit. They're not getting rich off cigarettes. Now, Terracycle plans to tackle more of the world's most notorious trash, from dirty diapers to chewing gum. ---------- SHOTLIST: Terracycle's headquarters in TRENTON, NJ; High Line in NY, outside a bar in JERSEY CITY, NJ (for smoking/cigarette shots), JANUARY 10 & 16, 2013, SOURCE: AFPTV - Closeup of cigarette - Young man smoking - Pan, Terracycle exterior - Ernie Simpson separates cigarette paper and filter - Display on table of cigarettes, plastic pellets made from cigarettes, and recycled plastic - Sample lumber made from cigarettes SOUNDBITE 1 Ernie Simpson (man), Vice President, Research and Development - Employee in design department makes mirror frame out of forks - Recycled ceiling hanging - Eyeglasses chandelier - Terracycle-made clothing - Front entrance/lobby with receptionist in foreground - Plastic bottles in foreground, large room in office SOUNDBITE 2 Tom Szaky (man), Terracycle founder and CEO - Man smoking outside a bar - Ernie places filters into an extruder, where they are melted and a black plastic "extrudite" is produced - Black extrudite material coming out of machine - Ernie looks over extruder machine as it melts/processes filters - Sheet listing other Terracycle brigades/collection programs SOUNDBITE 3 Tom Szaky (man), Terracycle founder and CEO - Table, dress made from recycled materials in lobby/front room - Terracycle logo on wall made from drink pouches - Exterior of building "Zero waste" painted on exterior