Bratislava finds a creative way to recycle cigarette butts

Slovakia has the world’s first road made of this material

Bratislava’s municipal waste management company OLO announced that it will start collecting cigarette butts in special containers to be placed during the public events taking place in the city. This doesn’t sound very groundbreaking, at least not until you find out what the cigarette butts will then be used for.

Together with the Bratislava City Council and the companies SPAK-EKO and EcoButt, OLO will help transform the discarded material into asphalt for the roads.

If visitors to a festival, run, market or other urban event throw cigarette butts into a special container, they will contribute not only to a cleaner environment but to the material recovery of this type of waste,” said Martina Čechová, manager of the circular economy at OLO, as quoted by The Slovak Spectator.

Rethinking the idea of cigarette butt waste

Apparently, cigarette filters can be transformed into special fibres, which are then used as an admixture for the preparation of asphalt for covering roads. In fact, there is already a road in Slovakia made of this material. It was made by EcoButt and you can find it in Žiar nad Hronom in central Slovakia. Reportedly, it’s the first of this kind in the entire world.

Plus, disposing of cigarette butts in the special container shows care for the environment. Most discarded cigarette filters after smoking end up on the ground, which is problematic because they contain toxic substances that can contaminate the soil, water and ecosystem when it rains.

The new collection bins, which debuted as a pilot at the recent Christmas markets, are designed to accept both standard cigarette filters and those from modern heated tobacco devices.