NY Assemblyman Michael DenDekker Proposes Recycling Plan for Used Cigarettes

(May 26) -- Even with U.S. smoking rates near a historic low, you don't have to look far to find a spent cigarette on the ground. Cities and towns have for years launched anti-littering public-awareness campaigns and installed special receptacles for butts in addition to regular trashcans, but there was always a sense of resignation that the problem would never be completely stamped out.

Now a Democratic New York state assemblyman is floating a different solution to the problem of cigarette butts: recycle them.

According to The New York Times, a constituent came into Michael G. DenDekker's office and suggested a recycling program for cigarettes. DenDekker didn't take the idea seriously at first, but then he started doing research and found that cigarette litter can actually be turned into something useful. Chinese scientists, for instance, discovered that soaking used cigarette butts in water can help create a solution that keeps steel pipes from corroding. (Just the thing for America's decrepit infrastructure.)

DenDekker has since proposed a bill to create a statewide recycling program for cigarette butts, funded by a 1-cent deposit on each butt. This would pay for the program but also would give an incentive to those who collect cans and bottles to set up an alternate revenue stream. Plus, the thinking goes, the city would then be able to devote fewer resources to cleaning up the litter.

Apart from the aesthetic issue, cigarette litter is also an environmental concern. DenDekker's office estimates that 176 million pounds of cigarette butts are discarded annually in the United States. According to CigaretteLitter.org, 97 percent of cigarettes have filters, and 95 percent of those filters are made of a type of plastic that degrades very slowly and gives off toxic chemicals that can pollute water and harm animals. They often turn up in the stomachs of dead birds, fish and mammals.

Bills move slowly, but DenDekker is confident that once word gets out, other legislators will sign on to his. "I don't think I'll have a problem getting a Senate sponsor," he says.