From Cigarette Butts Into Stunning Works Of Art

Now, this is a great way to breathe new life into these things (ha!)! Industrial designer Sachi Tungare turned the 300 cigarette stubs she collected into different sculptures, such as bowls, lamp shades, and vases. The Delhi-based designer wanted to find out how can people properly repurpose or dispose of cigarette butts, as Fast Company detailed:

So Tungare began experimenting with ways to transform cigarette waste into something new. For weeks, she donned plastic gloves and gathered thousands of cigarette butts, ending up with enormous bags in her backyard. “It was a very stinky, dirty process,” she recalls. She found a way to sanitize the cigarettes with an enzyme-based organic bleach, then separated the plastic from the paper in order to recycle both. She dissolved the cellulose acetate, creating a solution that could be poured into molds. When the water evaporated, it hardened into the designs she created. She then paints them before leaving them to dry. “The beauty of the process is that when the water evaporates, it leaves a swirl pattern,” she says.