Greenbutts Article Summary

For the Soapbox Project, my original idea is to find a solution to cigarette butt litter:

For the past centuries, people would always smoke indoors until second-hand smoking was discovered and legislation decided to force people to smoke outside. The problem is that tobacco products comprise 38% of all U.S. roadway litter. And that's not all! Cigarette butt litter decreases the appeal of public spaces, adds toxic chemicals to water supplies, and can be a fire hazard to local wildlife. On top of all that, cigarette butts aren't biodegradable. They will not completely disappear if they are thrown into the environment instead of an ashtray, and can take years to break apart. I've recently researched more about any possible solutions already being tested and found one.

Greenbutts, LLC has come up with biodegradable cigarette butts that can even plant seeds if they are thrown on the ground. But...they've been doing 5 years of research and development and only have a patent in the United Kingdom. Nonetheless, in this article (link) Timothy Donahue describes the creation of the company and how Greenbutts can provide the same smoking experience without the waste of cigarette butts. The article also describes the challenges that the company is going through and how the biodegradable filters will hit the market in the future.

Since I'm collaborating with Danielle,

Write to you soon...probably next Monday morning... XD

Joe