BALTIMORE _ A recycling initiative collected 55,000 cigarette butts during its first six months in the Harbor East neighborhood, according to a news release.
The Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore started the program by installing 15 recycling receptacles and now plans to expand into other areas of the Inner Harbor.
"These large numbers signal the need for even more receptacles in other areas of the waterfront, which we are looking into now," said Eric Souza, the partnership's director of operations. "We hope this simple change can make a big difference for our waterfront community."
The effort is part of the nonprofit's Healthy Harbor Initiative, which aims to make the Harbor swimmable and fishable by 2020.
The Waterfront Partnership used TerraCycle, an international recycling company, to transform the cigarette waste into useful products, such as compost and shipping pallets. TerraCycle's Cigarette Waste Bridge is a free national recycling program aimed to reduce cigarette waste.
