Paying cash for cigarette butts
Posted June 16, 2013 5:16 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – They came in bags, boxes and even on their own. West Enders cashed in cigarette butts by the pound at a penny per smoke during Car Free Day.
Organizer John Merzetti says the idea has a bigger purpose than just cleaning up the neighbourhood.
“The whole purpose around that is to try to prove that if there were a deposit on cigarette butts, that it would work just like the beverage deposit system works,” says Merzetti.
Merzetti and crew expected to blow through their $500 budget without a single negative comment from the public.
“People have been bringing them in by the pound. We’ve given away plenty of $20 bills. Twenty dollars a pound, that’s roughly 2,000 butts,” he says.
Organizers are attempting to get the province to consider a deposit system across BC.
Around one third of cigarettes smoked are littered says Dr. Stuart Kreisman, an endocrinologist at St. Pauls Hospital and another organizer of the West End Cleanup.
Besides the obvious eyesore, they pose environmental hazards for animals.
Kreisman says refunding money for each retrieved butt would virtually solve the problem in the same way the bottle deposit system works.
“The bottle-collecting members of the public all love idea. It allows them to make income and to feel that they’re helping the community as well,” says Kreisman.
British Columbia was the first province to introduce a bottle deposit system.
