Even the most passionate recycler will probably admit that there are certain things he or she might throw away from time to time—like cigarettes.

Enter TerraCycle.

Founded in 2001 by CEO Tom Szaky, TerraCycle’s anti-butt campaign, dubbed Cigarette Waste Brigade, is a essentially a war on the seemingly countless discarded cancer sticks that litter our beaches, streets, and waterways. All parts of the extinguished cigarettes—the filters, the outer plastic packaging, the inner foil packaging, the rolling paper, and, yes, even the ashes—are collected by registered “brigades,” which are located all over the world. The brigades ship the cigarette detritus to TerraCycle, which then melts and recycles then into plastic lumber, pallets, bins, and ashtrays. A house, for example, could be framed from this type of recycled material.

Sponsored by the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, TerraCycle’s Cigarette Brigade aims to work with more than 20 million people already collecting various types of waste for them in over 20 countries.

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