WHITMAN Laboratories in Petersfield is doing its bit to keep cigarette butts off Hampshire streets and from being incinerated by sending it to a new innovative free UK recycling initiative called the cigarette waste recycling programme.

Cigarette butts are the UK’s most commonly occurring item of litter, comprising 35 per cent of the total litter.

Already Whitman Laboratories, based on the Bedford Road industrial estate, has helped collect more than 124,000 pieces of cigarette waste from its premises, which will be recycled by TerraCycle into a variety of useful plastic products such as construction hoardings and lumber, with any remaining tobacco or paper being composted.

Pauline O’Dwyer, waste co-ordinator at Whitman Laboratories, said: “When we heard that cigarette waste could now be recycled for the first time in the UK, and at no cost to us as a business, we immediately signed up.

“We were keen to help keep the area around Hampshire clear of littered cigarette butts and keep them separated from unsortable waste streams which otherwise would have been sent to an energy waste facility for incineration.

“The response has been brilliant with smokers at Whitman Laboratories using our designated collection points, which has made a real difference with significantly less cigarette butts on the floor.

“Plus there is the added benefit that any cigarette butts that we do see littered are now being picked up as we know they are being recycled into useful things.”

To encourage its employees to contribute to the project, Whitman Laboratories has also come up with a novel ‘ballot bin’ ashtray – asking smokers to vote for their favourite superhero by discarding their butts into either a ‘Batman’ or ‘Superman’ bin.

Stephen Clarke, from TerraCycle, added: “It’s great to see the collectors at Whitman Laboratories making a real difference in Hampshire by keeping cigarette waste off the streets and sending them in for recycling.

“Both TerraCycle and JTI encourage people in Hampshire to sign up to the cigarette waste recycling programme and to approach workplaces and public places with designated smoking areas or suffering with a cigarette litter problem in their community to sign up as well.

“Pubs, bars, restaurants, shopping centres, train stations, airports and even local councils are exactly the sort of places that should be encouraged to sign up and recycle the cigarette waste that is being generated on and around their premises.”

For more details or to sign up for the cigarette waste recycling centre, visit terracycle.co.uk.