Seattle recycles everything, even people’s butts

A pilot program to keep people’s cigarette butts off the streets of downtown Seattle is underway.

The Metropolitan Improvement District, a nonprofit, has installed 15 cigarette recycling boxes on utility poles around town.

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Cigarette butts are a big litter issue in Seattle and nationwide, said improvement district Vice President Joshua Curtis.

“The ones we don’t see are the ones that get washed into the drains,” Curtis said. “There’s obviously a huge impact on the [Puget] Sound there.”

The boxes were installed about a month ago in areas with high foot traffic, and outside bars and night clubs.

The program will be assessed in another five months, Curtis said. If there is a positive impact to the area, the program will become permanent and more boxes will be installed.

The recycle boxes are provided by TerraCycle, which collects the butts and produces a variety of industrial products with it. Any remaining tobacco is composted.

For every pound of butts collected, TerraCycle donates $1 towards the Keep America Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention Program and $1 back towards the improvement district.

Each of the boxes costs about $50, plus an annual permitting fee, which isn’t much, Curtis said. The funding comes from the improvement district’s budget, which is raised from downtown property owner dues.

The boxes are cleaned by 53 “cleaning ambassadors,” who work from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. They’re cleaned out once or twice per week, which is expected to increase as more people become aware of them, Curtis said.

“We’re getting requests from bar owners already,” he said.