Social business does business with big tobacco

A few months ago I wrote a blog post about the intention to TerraCycle, a national program to recycle all waste, including even cigarette butts. Our programs have grown; we have often had an internal debate about what we want the company to be a partner to help them make their waste (which in turn makes their products greener.)

We have come to understand that every industry has its problems. For example, the food industry has a lot of controversy surrounding the use of refined sugar, corn and soy in their products. And clothing industry has a problem related to the use of skin and fur, and cosmetic industries have problems regarding animal testing, which some retailers require. The list goes on, and I am increasingly convinced that there really is not a perfect product, which we all have to consider when buying things. A month after this post, in the middle of May, we introduced a cigarette recycling program in Canada. It was a success with over 400 people registered and the collection of more than 180,000 cigarette butts has been collected. Somewhat to my surprise, several Canadian media have been positive about the program. Even now, if you search for "cigarette processing," we occupy an important place in the top 10 links that come. And now, we have started a similar program in the United States, along with Santa Fe Tobacco, which is owned by RJ Reynolds. We are more than 220 collection sites registered within the first 24 hours and over 400 in a few days. Consumers can create a collection location at no cost by signing up for a home or business on our Web site. We pay shipping, and for every pound of cigarette waste collected, we donate $ 1 to Keep America Beautiful. We have also recently introduced a pilot program in Spain, with British American Tobacco. We have received confirmation of interest from various tobacco companies in other countries that are interested in establishing similar programs. Waste customers send us crushed and separated. Organic material in the compost (ash, tobacco and paper) and inorganic (cellulose acetate filter, onboard packing components) is made in plastic products such as plastic pallets. There is no technical reason why cigarette butts, as well as all other traditionally no recyclable waste can not be recycled. It simply costs more to recycle waste cigarettes than the output costs, and processing companies have chosen not to get into the business. Instead, they focus on things like aluminum cans and paper that have good volume and a strong economy. In our case, the economy works because tobacco companies finance the difference by sponsoring our teams. It's kind of voluntary national bottle bill for cigarettes or voluntary extension of product liability. TerraCycle tries to make money on both ends. Further $ 15 million in sales this year, however, we are still only modestly profitable. We hope that, as our growth in collections, our profit will be too.