by BRCA Beautification Committee
Beautification Committee volunteers and environmentally conscious Bridgelanders regularly pick up litter in our community. Litter “hot spots” include Murdoch Park, La Piazza, 1 Avenue, and Edmonton Trail/4 Street. These “litter sweeps” keep our neighbourhood clean and welcoming and send a message that Bridgeland parks and streets are not litter “dumping grounds”. Thank you for responsibly disposing of your litter.
Cigarette butts are dropped on sidewalks and parks without a second thought. Butts are the most littered item in the world at a rate of 4.5 trillion butts per year. Some smokers may think they are biodegradable. But they are not. The filters are made from synthetic plastic like fibres which take 200 years to break down. The filters also trap toxic chemicals from the tobacco which leach into the environment and poison our ecosystem.
How can cigarette butt litter be reduced to zero? It starts with smokers being responsible by properly disposing their butts. The Beautification Committee is making cigarette butt disposal easier by installing fourteen Cigarette Butt Recycling Boxes at “butt hotspots”. The boxes were supplied by Calgary Waste and Recycling Services through a program set up by TerraCycle, a company which recycles hard to handle litter. Beautification volunteers will empty the boxes and send “tons of butts” to TerraCycle in Ontario where they are broken apart. The tobacco is composted, and the filters are converted into a plastic powder for manufacturing of park benches, patio deck boards, picnic tables, etc. Terracycle has been recycling cigarette butts for over ten years. Organizations sending butts to Terracycle include cruise ship companies, Amazon, cities (e.g., Toronto and Pittsburgh) and Parks Canada. The environmental group A Greener Future organizes the annual Butt Blitz month each April. In 2024, 513 volunteers in 55 cities and towns across Canada picked up 1 million butts for recycling by TerraCycle. The BRCA is excited to be part of this Canada wide environment action project.
Here are some photos of the butt recycling boxes which have been installed in these locations: La Piazza, Murdoch Park benches along Centre Avenue, and 1 Avenue. Thank you for using the butt recycling boxes and keeping Bridgeland Clean and Green. If you have comments and suggestions for Butt Recycle box locations, please email them to [email protected].
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