subject: Recycling cigarette butts – Johannesburg, South Africa [print this page] Recycling cigarette butts Johannesburg, South Africa
Ash n Ad began its first round of tests to recycle cigarette butts. The idea in mind was to break up the cellulose acetate (cigarette filter) into a workable fiber, which will be used as a filling agent in certain molding applications. Cigarette filters are mainly made out of cellulose, a natural fiber. They are processed into cellulose acetate, which is a synthetic plastic.
Phase one involved a finger impact mill and a hammer mill. These machines were used to break open the cigarette butt and expose the vast quantity of cellulose acetate fiber. Once milled the fibers were filtered through a screen and emptied into a container bag.
We conducted phase two in a chemical engineering lab where we measured up the quantities of each ingredient used in our moulds. The end result was great and we were hoping to create a type of concrete brick or low cost building material.
Overall our tests were successful and we proved that cigarette butts could be used as a filling agent in various molding applications. There are many ideas and ways to which we can use cigarette butt fibers to manufacture useful products or solutions. More tests are currently been done!
Our team has embarked to take on a serious challenge that surrounds something so small but so large at the same time - the cigarette butt.
You can watch the video of our experiment here.
We encourage you all to please send us your comments, suggestions, ideas and helpful tips to make this a success for everyone. All countries have the same problem and we all need to put our thinking caps on and solve it.
Post and share your thoughts with us - click here.
Additional teams around the world are also conducting their own experiments to recycle cigarette butts. A little Googling and Mr. DenDekker discovered that in China, scientists had found that soaking cigarette butts in water creates a solution that can protect steel pipes used by the oil industry from corroding. In Brazil, a fashion designer, Alexandra Guerrero, cleans cigarette butts, dyes them and spins them with sheep wool into clothing.
