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I’m writing on behalf of the Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition’s Butts Be Gone team members Kevin Connolly, Susan Connolly, Debbie Murphy and Marianne McKinney. We appreciate the great Nov. 15 BDN article that Kay Neufeld wrote about the Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition’s efforts to rid Belfast of the cigarette butts that litter streets and sidewalks in Belfast.
As a result of their writing about our new Butts Be Gone (look for the smoking fish) station at the Belfast Transfer Station, we have already seen more people depositing their cigarette waste there. This means that, instead of poisoning Belfast Bay, these cigarettes will be sent to Terracycle where they will be repurposed into shipping pallets, ash trays, and plastic lumber. All the butts deposited in the butlers placed throughout Belfast will also be recycled. The inclusion in the article of these strategically placed receptacles will also encourage their use.
Thank you to Neufeld and to the Bangor Daily News for helping us address this significant environmental problem. Thank you also to the people who are already using these options in Belfast and welcome to those who will now, thanks to this article, realize that they have a recycling option for their butts disposal.
Kate Hanson
Belfast