More than 60 cigarette-recycling bins installed in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS -- Tired of discarded cigarette butts littering the streets and sidewalks of St. Louis, several organizations have partnered to install 62 recycling bins scattered across the city.

Downtown STL Inc., TerraCycle and Progressive Waste Solutions announced Tuesday the cigarette-collection receptacles in St. Louis, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Each bin can hold around 800 cigarette butts, which is roughly equal to one pound. The Downtown St. Louis Foundation expects to receive $1 for each pound dropped in the bins.

Spokeswoman Missy Kelley with Downtown STL said Progressive Waste Solutions paid for the bins and Downtown STL installed them. She said the recycled butts could be used to make plastics and the leftover tobacco could be used as compost.

Spokesman Albe Zakes for TerraCycle said the company has worked with around 10 cities in North America over the last year. He said the biggest success so far is Vancouver, which is on pace to recycle 12 million cigarette butts a year using around 100 receptacles.

Smokers often dump their used cigarettes along roads and sidewalks, because they're discouraged from dropping the cigarettes in trash cans, where they could start fires.

Crysta Ellis, a server at The Dubliner pub in downtown St. Louis, said she tries to recycle her cigarette boxes in Collinsville, Illinois, where she lives.

But she hadn't heard of the cigarette butts-recycling effort in St. Louis until last Friday, when she spotted a bin strapped to a light pole near the pub's back entrance. Since then, she has been dropping what's left of her cigarettes into it.

"Even though I smoke, I try to be conscious (of the environment)," she said.

Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com