Cigarette Butt Recycling

(Vancouver, British Columbia)

Vancouver on Tuesday became the first municipality in North America to initiate a cigarette butt recycling program, and it will cost taxpayers the grand sum of $110.

Not $110 per person, or even per property, but for the entire six-month program.

That's because the city is kicking $1 for each of the 110 pole-mounted fireproof cigarette butt recycling containers that have now been installed in four downtown Vancouver business districts. The rest of the project, total cost unknown, is being underwritten by TerraCycle, the New York-based company that already has established consumer-based cigarette butt recycling programs.

Heh.