US firm launches cigarette waste recycling scheme

Cigarette butts are to be recycled into plastic products under a scheme that aims to cut litter and landfill, it has been announced.

Smoking related rubbish is the most common form of litter, found at almost three-quarters (73%) of sites surveyed by anti-litter campaigners, and making up more than a third (35%) of the items of waste that have been dropped.

The new initiative will allow smokers to prevent some of the billions of non-biodegradable butts and other cigarette waste which go into the bin from ending up in landfill or as litter, said TeraCycle, the US recycling company behind the scheme.