Cigarettes, Lighters and Old Vending Machines

Trashmagination Creative Reuse Podcast

Art and crafts from cigarette butts? Disgusting! But creative reuse artists cannot be stopped! You will be amazed by what people have made from thousands of cigarette butts, plastic lighters, cigarette packaging, cigar boxes and cigarette vending machines.

Many cigarette artists began as litter volunteers, participating in beach clean-ups around the world. In 2017, volunteers in the International Coastal Cleanup picked up 2.4 million cigarette butts – it was the most common form of litter. More than five trillion cigarette butts are tossed per year, so if there was ever a type of trash that needed creative thinking, this would be it!

You can see many project ideas on Trashmagination’s Pinterest board on cigarette butts, plastic lighters and related items.

Amazing Art Made from Cigarette Butts

Taylor Lane – The Cigarette Surfboard

Vissla and Surfrider Upcycling Contest – Entries Due September 13, 2018!

Taylor Lane was the 2017 winner in this contest. Design a surfboard or other water craft from recycled materials and win a prize

Creators & Innovators Upcycle Contest 2018 from Vissla on Vimeo.

Jason Mecier’s Celebrity Portraits

A post shared by Jason Mecier (@jasonmecier) on Jul 28, 2018 at 8:07pm PDT

A post shared by Jason Mecier (@jasonmecier) on Jul 13, 2018 at 9:07pm PDT

Other Cigarette and Plastic Lighter Artists

• Sea Angels – beach clean-up organization in Florida – art from cigarette butts of marine life
• Shelly Marshall – sea turtle from 1,200 cigarette butts
• Susan Scott – Marine life art from plastic lighters in Hawaii
• Michelle Doherty jewelry from plastic lighter components in Thailand
• Tom Deininger “Filter Rabbit” – sculpture from cigarette filters
• Jesus Bubu Negron – carpet from cigarette butts
• Flore Garcia Boure – dress from cigarette butts – if you love this dress, check out the Trashmagination podcast episode on trash fashion!
• Many items made from cigarette packaging – such as dresses, purses, sketchbooks etc!

Cigarette Vending Machines and the Art-o-Mat

One of my favorite creative reuse projects! Art-o-Mat refurbishes cigarette vending machines to sell art Search to find a machine near you! Artists contribute art and get paid when the art sells through these machines. The art has to be at least as small as a cigarette box. Follow Art-o-Mat on Instagram to see examples of art sold in the machines, and announcements of where they are installing new machines. In the Washington DC area, where I live, every District Taco restaurant has one, as well as the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

A post shared by Art-o-mat (@artomat) on May 19, 2018 at 4:36pm PDT

Retired cigarette vending machines are refurbished to vend original art, creating the unusual and clever Art-o-mat® – Don't Go 'Round Artless!

Posted by UNC-TV on Monday, April 22, 2019

Ways to Discourage Smokers from Littering

Ballot Bin

Terracycle Cigarette Recycling Program

Indian Company Core Enterprises Recycling Cigarette Butts

Show Details

At the end of this episode, I ask for people to give me broken tents and colorful shampoo bottles. Learn more about this project here!

• Script for this podcast episode about creative reuse of cigarette butts, plastic lighters, cigarette packaging, cigar boxes and cigarette vending machines
• The Trashmagination podcast theme music is Kitchen from the Marian Circle Drum Brigade.