The Baltimore Waterfront Partnership has set the goal of making the inner harbor of the city both swimmable and fishable by the year 2020. Part of the reason that the harbor is polluted is the tendency of smokers to discard cigarette butts after finishing. Many of these butts have wound up in the harbor, contributing to its pollution, particularly because of the plastic filters in the butts.
The partnership has deployed 15 recycling urns at strategic points along the waterfront, outside businesses such as bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and movie theaters, with plans to expand the program even further. The results of the first six months of the program have included the capture of 55,000 cigarette butts that would otherwise have found themselves in the environment, including the harbor.
The Waterfront Partnership is teaming up with TerraCycle, a recycling company, to dispose of the cigarette butts and make them into useful products. The tobacco and paper will be mixed in with nonfood compost for gardening and agriculture applications. The plastic in the filters will be turned into a number of industrial products, mainly shipping pallets. The pallets will be used to help load cargo onto ships and trucks that use the port of Baltimore.
Thus far, thanks to the volume of cigarette butts that have been captured, the program has been termed a complete success by its proponents. The Waterfront Partnership intends to augment the recycling program in hopes of cleaning up the inner harbor while making new useful products from recycled materials.
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