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Downtown council to add additional cigarette recycling containers

Earlier this year the Galesburg Downtown Council approved the purchasing and installation of five cigarette recycling receptacles with the goal of cutting down on the amount of used cigarette butts on city sidewalks and ledges.
GDC President Bob Bondi came up with the idea when he went on a trip to New Orleans last Thanksgiving and was introduced to Terracycle, an innovative recycling company.

He said he noticed many light poles had Terracycle container that stood about four feet tall.

Saying “we noticed no cigarette butts anywhere and we additionally noticed that people who were smoking all throughout the area were very religious about getting to one of these and when they finished their cigarettes.”

Bondi said the receptacles are located in the downtown area including outside of the Bondi Building, First Mid Illinois Bond and Trust, and the Iron Spike Brewery.

Additionally the GDC are looking to add many more.

“Twenty have been ordered and ought to be in before the end of the week and we’ll have them installed next week,” Bondi says. “And hopefully if they’re as well received as the ones we’ve gotten so far we’ll probably get another 20 or 25.”

Currently over nine-thousand communities participate in Terracycle’s Cigarette Waste Brigade program. 

The program involves the collection of cigarette butts from the receptacles, and for every pound collected, Terracycle will donate one dollar to the non-profit Keep America Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention Program.

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