Recycling and Utilization of Cigarette Butt for Waste Water Treatment

Cigarette butts are commonly found litter worldwide. These littered butts are potential sources for environmental contamination. Environmental hazards may arise in areas where there is considerable amount of cigarette litter. This is due to leaching of chemicals from filters and smoked tobacco. Not many who smoke realize that a cigarette butt is made of cellulose acetate, a plastic filter that is not biodegradable and can be around harming the environment for years once discarded. Solid waste like cigarette butt which is creating environmental problems, used in various applications such as bitumen mixture, toy making, clay bricks and other usable materials due to its low cost and easy availability. The present research work gives the method for treating the cigarette butt in which cigarette butt is mixed with solvent and washed with water. The pure form of cellulose acetate then used to make a porous membrane which is wound around a rotating steel cage to make a reactor. The treated water is checked for standard parameters. The reactor is able to reduce BOD, COD and Suspended Solids. The waste produced by cleaning the cigarette butt is reused for the decomposition of compost or the pesticide or fertilizer in Agricultural field based on the characteristics of the waste solvent.