You’ve heard of asphalt made from old tires, glass and many other materials but how about cigarette butts? That’s the newest item being used to pave road, according to Springwise. With around six trillion cigarette butts produced every year worldwide, many of which end up tossed onto the ground, this could kill two birds with one stone.
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) lecturer Dr. Abbas Mohajerani has been trying for many years to find sustainable and practical solutions to the problem of cigarette butt waste, including turning them into bricks. In his research Dr. Mohajerani mixed the butts with hot asphalt to create a new, lightweight aggregate.
The cigarette-enhanced asphalt is capable of handling heavy traffic and also has a lower thermal conductivity than normal asphalt. This means that cigarette asphalt used to pave roads and sidewalks in cities could help reduce the urban heat island effect responsible for rising city temperatures.