DOWNTOWN VERNON | Cigarette Waste

Cigarette butts make up more than one third of all collected litter! They are actually the most abundant form of plastic waste in the world, with about 4.5 trillion individual butts polluting our global environment.

As someone that cleans up downtown streets I would agree with this statistic. The main goal is to make sure that the cigarette butts don’t end up going down our street drains while also beautifying the area and making it free from debris.

After getting thrown on the ground a cigarette can take up to 10 years to degrade that is why the DVA provides pocket ashtrays! They allow you to safely dispose of a cigarette butt and hold onto it until the opportunity arises to put it into the garbage. Another option is to fill the pocket ashtray and then recycle the cigarette butts where the waste collected is recycled into a variety of industrial products, such as plastic pallets, and any remaining tobacco is recycled as compost.

If you are interested in a reusable pocket ashtray to help reduce the amount of cigarette butt waste, please contact dina@downtownvernon.com