Man posts thousands of cigarette butts to tobacco companies to recycle
An eco-warrior is on a mission to post thousands of fag butts back to the tobacco firms who made them.
Jason Alexander, 48, has picked up half a million dog ends this year from his home town of Ipswich, Suffolk, England, and during walks along the beach, according to metro.co.uk.
He has already sent off his first box of 1,000 finished cigarettes to British and American Tobacco with the message: ‘Have your butts back’.
With his social enterprise company – Rubbish Walks CIC – Jason hopes to collect a million butts in a new campaign.
The former product designer said he first noticed just how much of an issue there was when he started doing cleaning marathons along the Suffolk coast.
He said, “As I was going along, I noticed there was a lot of cigarette butts that I couldn’t pick up at the time because I was on a time limit. If I started picking them up I’d still be there.
“When I finished I just knew that this was such a big issue and wanted to do something about it.”
It was then that he decided to start sending them back to producers to try and get them to recycle the butts.
After sending his first box to British and American Tobacco, he plans to deliver them to other companies in the UK.
He said it’s ‘extremely difficult’ to divide the cigarettes by brand and get the firms to deal with the issue.
Jason added, “We want them to take part in a conversation with us and take an active role in helping to recycle the butts.”
He said a ‘national strategy’ is needed if the problem is to be dealt with.