A local club is bringing residents together to help pick up cigarette butts to help raise money for projects.
The Stirling and District Lions Club is collecting the cigarette butts and sending them off to the company, TerraCycle.
TerraCycle then turns the cigarette butts into plastic pellets to be used for various recycled products.
“Our program was started as a simple way to raise funds,” said Alana Bancroft, a Stirling and District Lions Club representative in a press release.
“At the time, our club benefited directly and could put the funds into our local environmental programs and the Lions of Canada Fund. This helps us meet our fundraising targets for this LCIF (Lions Clubs International Foundation) which spends all of the funds raised on projects through Lions Clubs in Canada.”
Director of Community Relations for TerraCycle, Eric Ascalon, explains how the Lions Club got involved.
“They reached out to us. The process is very simple. You go right onto our website, terracycle.com, and you sign up for a free account and then you select which way streams you want to collect and recycle. It’s as simple as that.”
Ascalon compares how the club is doing compared to other municipalities taking part in the program.
“For a small community-centred organization, it’s really an impressive number (of donations). I would say that they’re probably pretty close… to the top.”
In a press release, the company says the plastic pellets that get made can be used to make several other products, including shipping pallets, ashtrays and park benches.
