Scientists in Slovakia plan to build a cigarette butt road in the country. City Hall is already collecting material in partnership with companies EcoButt and SPAK-EKO.
Slovakia is using an innovative approach focused on dealing with the environmental problem caused by cigarette butts, well known for being one of the main sources of pollution in the world's oceans and beaches. A Odvoz to Likvidacia Odpadu (OLO), a municipal company from Bratislava, is at the forefront of this technology, proposing to convert cigarette butts into material for road construction.
The city will begin collecting cigarette butts by placing special collectors at public events. According to Martina Čechová, circular economy manager at OLO, if visitors to a festival, race, fair, or other urban event place cigarette butts in the container, they will contribute not only to a cleaner environment, but also to material appreciation this type of waste.
The discarded material collected by the city hall will be transformed into asphalt in a project in partnership with the companies SPAK-EKO and EcoButt. The cigarette butt road process as an additive in the production of asphalt mixtures for roads.
On its website, EcoButt explains that the idea arose from a study published in Australia in 2017 on the use of cigarette filter fibers in construction industry. In 2019, in collaboration with an accredited laboratory, the company published a study of the physical-mechanical properties of asphalt from cigarette butts, comparing it with a normal asphalt mixture and proving that the use of cigarette filters as a mixture modifier does not impact its properties.
Discoveries made by EcoButt using cigarette butts
Based on such research, EcoButt developed methylcellulose granules, replacing common cellulose granules, which are obtained from wood pulp. Therefore, the use of wood from forests is avoided and it also transforms cigarette butts, a problematic residue, into a useful solution for cities. The expectation in Bratislava is also to obtain cleaner streets with the cigarette butt road.
According to the company, which offers services ranging from the collection of butts, with the installation of special bins, to the transformation of asphalt material, research shows that a Cigarette filters contaminate up to 5 liters of water in conditions incompatible with the life of a normal organism.
As a pilot, the containers were launched at the Christmas fair for artisanal products, which are quite common in Europe. The bins can collect filters from common cigarettes and also electronic cigarettes, better known as Vapes. In fact, a cigarette butt road was installed in the country and is located in Ziar nad Hronom, in a central region of Slovakia.
The company has not released data on the current situation of the already developed road, but with the capital joining the new project, it can be deduced that asphalt made from cigarette butts is promising.
Other initiatives with cigarette butts
In addition to this cigarette butt road, researchers at RMIT University have previously shown that fired clay bricks with 1% recycled cigarette butt content are as strong as regular bricks and use less energy to produce.
The analysis showed that if just 2,5% of global annual brick production incorporated 1% cigarette butts, it would offset the total cigarette production each year. The research team has now developed a detailed plan to bring together the brickmaking and waste management industries to implement cigarette butt recycling through large-scale brickmaking.
