Business To Kick (Cigarette) Butts, Save Environment, With Tough Anti-Littering Law

By Pam DeFiglio, Patch.com

The sight of old cigarette butts littering roads and sidewalks makes Tom Martyka smoking mad. Not only do they create rundown conditions, their components release toxins which can harm the environment, he said.

So Martyka, of Morton Grove, Ill., has started Buttkickers, a company which provides businesses free cigarette receptacles for the butts, which he will then recycle. 

The idea has been tried before on the West Coast, but it wasn't cost-effective and didn't generate a lot of interest, he said.

But an Illinois law which goes into effect Jan. 1 can change all that, and provide the muscle (in the form of hefty fines) to really kick butts. 

Starting Jan. 1, Illinois will fine anyone who flicks a cigarette butt onto the ground, or out a car window, a whopping $1,500, according to Huffington Post. A third conviction is a Class 4 felony, punishable by a $25,000 fine and between one and three years of jail time, according to the Rockford Register Star.

While that should be enough to get cigarette smokers' attention, there are also fines for business and property owners who don't provide receptacles, or enough receptacles, for smokers to deposit their butts in.

The law says they'll be fined $100; then they'll have 10 days to put receptacles in place, or be fined $25 for each receptacle that should be there, according to the Illinois Review. They can also be convicted of a petty offense. 

Martyka's company will provide them the receptacles free; the details are on buttkickers.biz, which is scheduled to go live on Dec. 18. 

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Martyka answered a few of our questions, below. 

Patch: What is your background?

Martyka:  I owned a company which sold a a botanical deodorizer. It's no longer in business, but it made us realize how huge the green market is. 

Patch: How did you learn cigarette butts were recyclable?

Martyka: Through research, and talking to the Solid Waste Agency of Cook County.

Patch: Why is this a green cause?

Martyka: Cigarette butts are toxic; they shouldn’t be in the environment and in the water stream. There are reports of wildlife ingesting these things, and that should't be happening. 

Patch: What's inside a cigarette butt?

Martyka: It’s made from cellulose acetate, a plastic. It can be left outside for 15 years and will biodegrade, but still leaves it toxins.

Patch: Who's going to recycle them, and what will they become?

Martyka: TerraCycle, the largest recycler of hard-to-recycle products. They'll turn them into plastic picnic tables, deck materials, etc. 

Patch: How do you make money?

Martyka: We'll have a QR code on the cigarette receptacles. People can scan it with their smartphones, and they'll get a message from the sponsor.  

Patch: Which locations will you cover?

Martyka: We'll start with Niles and Evanston, then Morton Grove, and spread out across the north and northwest Chicago suburbs. 

With the city of Evanston, we’re proposing with them to put ashtrays on their entire stretch, 4.5 miles, of beachfront. Will people use them? We have to teach them, but it gives people an option other than flicking them onto the beach.

Patch: How can people order a receptacle?

Martyka: They can actually go on our website now; but it’s not a law until the first of January. Our website, buttkickers.biz, goes live Weds., Dec. 18.

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