By Morgan Pilz, Staff Writer

(Jan. 30, 2020) Twenty cigarette butt recycling receptacles are expected to be installed in Berlin, according to Economic and Community Director Ivy Wells.

By Morgan Pilz
Cigarette butt huts like this one have been set
up throughout Berlin in order to remove trash
from the streets. Once collected, the butts will
be recycled into benches.

Wells informed the Berlin mayor and town council on Monday that the installation of the receptacles, which will bear the town’s logo, is nearly complete.

Wells had applied for a Main Street Improvement grant from the Department of Housing and Community Development last May for the cigarette butt hut project and learned the town had received a $10,000 grant for the project in the fall.

“This was fully grant funded,” Well said. “It will also save on trash as well.”

“We received [these huts] and Dave Wheaton put those up last week,” she continued. “I have contracted with a company in Trenton, New Jersey, called TerraCycle, it’s all free. We collect the cigarette butts out of these receptacles and we bag them and put them in a box we send them.

Once the butts are collected, they’ll be mailed to TerraCycle, which provides free shipping and donates a dollar to the Keep America Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention Program for every pound of discarded cigarettes collected.

In addition, the butts used for smoking will be recycled into something human butts can be used for sittings.

“The butts that are put into these are used to make benches for our butts to sit on,” Wells said.