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The discarded cigarette end could be the latest weapon against global warming.
A London borough is studying innovative technology that enables butts to be recycled into rolls of home insulation.
At the moment, cigarette butts cannot be recycled and end up being sent to landfill, but Harrow is examining a process in which they are sterilised, broken down and compacted in insulation "pillows".
The butts would be collected during street cleaning, taken to a sorting point and sifted from other rubbish. About 4,000 cigarette ends a day are dropped in Harrow town centre.
Susan Hall, Harrow's portfolio holder for the environment, said: "Cigarette butts are unsightly and add to our landfill costs. Harrow is the second best recycler in London with a rate of 44 per cent, but any cost-efficient technology that drives that rate up is worth considering."
A council worker found the scheme on the website of recycling company Igloo Environmental, set up by environmental researcher Shaun Grimes.
Mr Grimes said he was inspired by seeing birds line nests with cigarette ends: "When the cigarette ban came in suddenly we were knee deep in the things. Our ultimate task is to rid our streets of ugly, toxic cigarette butts and recycle them into useful loft insulation after the removal of all the toxins."
He plans to charge councils £5,000 a year to recycle cigarette ends and provide them with the loft insulation.
A housing association plans to give all of a borough's council houses an eco-makeover. Brent Housing Partnership has spent £3million fitting 114 homes on the Brentfield estate, next to the North Circular, with insulation, double glazing and roofs of solar panels and tiles that absorb nitrous oxides.
A spokeswoman said: "We are applying for more funding and would like to fit all 13,000 social homes in the borough."
Stub insulation
1. Cigarette ends are placed in a pressure cooker used to clean medical equipment, called an autoclave.
2. The autoclave sterilises the cigarettes by subjecting them to 45 minutes of high pressure steam at 121°C or more. It kills pathogens and viruses at a high rate.
3. The process causes paper and other fibrous material to disintegrate into a mass of fibres.
4. It is then packed into “pillows” which are stacked together in lofts to provide insulation.
Reader views (3)
Katherine
That's very naughty. You are not supposed to say "Global Warming" anymore. You have to call it "Climate Change" just in case things get cooler instead of warmer.
Please go to the back of the class and face the wall.
- Aninal Magic, UK
And heating these things to 120C for 45 minutes costs no energy does it?
Idiocy.
- Http://Brackenworld.Blogspot.Com, UK
If this is successful with the government reduce Tax on fags as they should be re-designated as a "Green" product!
- Freedom, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
