Local Woman is Cleaning the City While Giving Back With Butt 1 Community

Donna Reid from Peterborough has been collecting cigarette waste for the last three years, and recycling it through Terracycles Unsmoke Cigarette Recycling Program.

Photo courtesy of Butt 1 Community.

Three years ago Reid participated in a community clean up with A Greener Future, an environmental nonprofit focused on litter cleanup and prevention, where she learned that cigarette butts could be recyclable.

“I just thought it would kind of be a no brainer, and I’d get people involved in the community - that’s why I called it ‘Butt 1 Community’, we’re all one.”

For the last three years Reid has been collecting butts, the ash from cigarettes and the cellophane that cigarettes come wrapped in. The carboard case can be put in the regular recycling.

She also invites community members to drop off waste they have collected at her house, and notes that she sometimes comes home to bags of cigarette butts on her porch, a welcomed surprise for her.

“I have sent just over 400 lbs of waste since 2018,” she says.

Reid ships her collection of cigarette waste to TerraCycle once a year. The program gifts her one dollar per one lbs of waste she collects, to donate to a local charity. This year she will donate the funds to Peterborough Streetvoice.

On Sunday Reid announced on social media that she submitted 147 lbs of waste this year.

“I’m getting more awareness out there so I’m hoping each year it grows a bit. The biggest thing is that people don’t understand that cigarette butts are actually waste. They’re the number one thrown out item in the entire world. Number one every time.”

In addition to raising awareness, Reid distributes ‘pocket ashtrays’ to people she sees smoking in public. A pocket ashtray is a small reusable container that suffocates a cigarette ember, contains the smell and allows the user to bring their butt home to throw out, rather than littering.

For more information on Butt 1 Community or to find out how to get involved visit their Facebook or Instagram.

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