A bin for butts

Photo: Jack Elliman

A product designed to help minimize the impact on the environment while reducing the number of wildfires was used for the first time at the Shambhala Music Festival a few years ago.

The air sealed Pocket Ashtray and BUTT BIN has proved to be a success at multiple music festivals and most recently at the annual Lumby Days event.

Both The Pocket Ashtray and BUTT BIN work hand in hand. The Pocket Ashtray is a clean and safe way to store cigarette butts before properly disposing of them in a marked BUTT BIN.

"It has been going really well, a tremendous amount of butts have been collected," said Jack Elliman, owner of The Pocket Ashtray and BUTT BIN.

The products are so well received the Village of Lumby and Monashee Community Forest purchased 2,000 Pocket Ashtray's and are handing them out for free to smokers.

"They really want to try to bring awareness to how devastating forest fires can be and how a large portion of them are from cigarette butts," Elliman said. "Lumby being forward thinking and innovative decided to try this project."

Elliman is currently working with many cities across Canada who are purchasing Pocket Ashtray's to hand out to their citizens.

"We are going to take the problem and turn it into the solution," says Elliman.

Currently, there are two permanent BUTT BINS. One is located just outside The Bulldog Hotel Silver Star and the other behind the Snac Shac in Lumby.

There are also BUTT BINS that can be found at multiple events.

Other than supporting the environment, there is another perk to disposing of butts in a BUTT BIN.

Every butt collected raises money for a great cause. TerraCycle Canada, an innovative recycling company, is donating cash per pound of BUTT BIN butts that are recycled.

"All the of the money that we collect we are going to make a forest fire themed Pocket Ashtray and give it out during forest fire season, " Elliman said.

The Pocket Ashtrays are air sealed and designed to suffocate the ember and keeps the smell contained.