VIJAYAWADA: It may be just a cigarette butt, but indiscriminate dumping of it may lead to water contamination. Hence, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has tied up with SuP Eco App, a social entrepreneurship start-up, for scientific disposal of cigarette butts.
Explaining the initiative to TNIE, VMC Additional Commissioner General (Projects) U Sarada Devi said it takes at least a decade for a cigarette butt to get decomposed. As part of the project, smokers can stub out cigarettes and dump them in plastic bins placed by the start-up at public places in the city. Sanitation workers will empty the bins and hand over the collected cigarette butts to a hired agency. It will transfer the butts to Noida-based Code Effort Private Limited, which recycles them into useful materials, she said.
SuP Eco App founder Yeswanth Reddy Modugula said, “We have tied up with the VMC in May to dispose of cigarette butts in a scientific manner. The pilot project has evoked a good response. Code Effort will pay for the butts. We will share the sum with the VMC. The initiative will prevent water contamination, besides keeping the city clean.”