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Wednesday, October 05, 2022, 12:59
Indian factory reprocesses stubs into soft toys
By Reuters
Wednesday, October 05, 2022, 12:59 By Reuters

Soft toys made using recycled fiber separated from cigarette filter tips are seen at a cigarette butts recycling factory in Noida, India Sept 12, 2022. (ANUSHREE FADNAVIS / REUTERS)

NEW DELHI – Sitting on the floor of a house on the outskirts of New Delhi, women smile and chat as they fill brightly colored toy bears with white stuffing made from a product more commonly found in a trash can.

His workers also separate out the butts' outer layer and tobacco, which are turned into recycled paper and compost powder respectively

The material is composed of cigarette stubs, separated into fibers and cleaned and bleached after being gathered from the city streets where they had been discarded along with millions of others.

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Reprocessing them into a range of products including toys and pillows is the brainchild of businessman Naman Gupta.

"We started with 10 grams (of fiber per day) and now we are doing 1,000 kilogrammes ... Annually we are able to recycle millions of cigarette butts," he told Reuters from his factory on the outskirts of the Indian capital.

His workers also separate out the butts' outer layer and tobacco, which are turned into recycled paper and compost powder respectively.

The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 267 million people, nearly 30 per cent of India's adult population, are tobacco users, and butts litter urban streets where general cleanliness standards are abysmally low.

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"(So) working here also helps keep our environment clean," said Poonam, a worker in Gupta's factory who gave only her first name.


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