JTI has launched a new scheme to help community retailers and other businesses keep their streets clean by collecting and recycling cigarette waste.

The Cigarette Waste Brigade is a partnership between JTI and TerraCycle and provides a free and easy way to recycle cigarette butts and associated smokers’ waste for the first time.

All the collected cigarette waste will be recycled by TerraCycle into a variety of useful plastic products, such as delivery pallets, with any remaining tobacco or paper being composted.

To participate, retailers simply need to sign up to the Cigarette Waste Brigade at www.terracycle.co.uk/cigarette-waste-brigade

They can then collect cigarette waste before packing it up in a box of their choosing and printing out a free shipping label from the TerraCycle website.

Free collection from the store is then arranged. 

Cigarette butts, cigar butts, ash, used and unused cigarette filters, rolling paper, inner foil packaging and outer plastic packaging are all accepted.

Charlie Cunningham Reid, head of corporate affairs and communications at JTI UK said: “This initiative will encourage smokers to make the responsible choice of recycling their cigarette waste and reduce the number of cigarette butts that are littered in communities around the UK.

“The Cigarette Waste Brigade is also a great opportunity for retailers to play a prominent role in their local communities by recycling cigarette waste that is being generated near their premises,” he said.

TerraCycle CEO and founder, Tom Szaky, added: “Thanks to the support of JTI, the Cigarette Waste Brigade has the potential to transform communities across the UK, by drastically reducing the amount of cigarette waste that is littered. At the same time it also provides a recycling solution for cigarette butts that would have ultimately ended up in landfill anyway.”