Butts on the beach: volunteers still needed for Wrightsville Beach cleanup | Community Spirit

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, NC (WECT) – An event to help clean up cigarette butts will take place on Wrightsville Beach Saturday, according to a news release from a spokesperson for blu eCigs, an electronic cigarette company in North Carolina.

To help keep Wrightsville Beach clean, volunteers will meet at Johnnie Mercer’s Pier to collect and dispose of thousands of cigarette butts as part of the second annual Great American Butt Clean.

The event, sponsored by Keep New Hanover County Beautiful, blu eCigs and InnovaGreen Systems, will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Anyone is invited to help volunteer.

Unlike some beach cleanups, the cigarette butts won’t simply be thrown away—instead, they will be recycled into useful materials. InnovaGreen Systems has developed a patented system for cigarette butt recycling, which ensures that the butts will never see a landfill.

"InnovaGreen Systems is very pleased to be a part of this clean-up for the second consecutive year,” read the news release. “This year, the cigarette butt litter will be sent for recycling to one of our affiliate partners, Responsible Smokers Act, so as to minimize smokers’ carbon footprint,” says Blake Burich, Founder of InnovaGreen Systems. “Please do your part every day to increase awareness and assist in creating convenience, so this litter can be removed from the waters of America and be recycled."

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