Chilean designer Alexandra Guerrero has been experimenting with cigarette butts. Her successful research and execution made way to The Mantis Project.  At first thought it sounds to good to be true and somewhat over the top. However I bet you this headline caught your attention as it caught mine.  The cigarette butts are mixed and blended together with wool, after they have undergone a vigorous cleaning procedure and made sure that it will not harm the human skin.

Of course, putting used cigarette butts in contact with your skin could not only be disgusting, but potentially dangerous. So before continuing on with her project, Guerrero asked environmental engineer Carolina Leiva to conduct a study to determine just how pure the material would be after cleaning the butts.

The study concluded that the filters could achieve 95% purification, which, according to the designer, means that the clean butts are safe to use.
The purification process begins with the cigarette butts going through autoclaves. They are then washed in a polar solvent, go through autoclave again, rinsed and dried, and, finally, shredded to create a wool-like material. The resulting liquid is also being donated to be tested as a biological insecticide.

So far the designer has produced a vest, a poncho, a dress, and a hat, and even has mixed the material from the cigarette filters with soap to make an exfoliating product. The end-result textile contains 20% recycled-cigarette filter material, and Guerrero has recover 5,000 cigarette butts from the streets so far.

This might not be the ultimate solution to the huge problem of cigarette litter, but neither is it a bad way to raise awareness about what can be done with otherwise dreadful waste material.

Visit The Mantis Project here.

In South Africa a local company is making huge progress in solving the disposal of cigarette butts outdoors. Ash n Ad has introduced a unique outdoor ashtray that is fast becoming a recognized icon for the correct disposal of cigarette butts. Each month the Ash n Ad team is collecting 10 000 cigarette butts and this number is increasing by 30% each month. A recycling program has begun and very soon Ash n Ad will also be announcing its successful experiments.

Find out more about Ash n Ad.