Brunswick boxes invite balloting through cigarette butts

Jul. 16—Maya Zambrano-Lee and her mom, Machelle Lee, meandered Brunswick's downtown on Thursday, picking up cigarette butts.

They reached a bright yellow bin with a topic up for vote — "backyard chickens in brunswick." One column said yes, and the other said no.

Zambrano-Lee poked her collection of cigarettes through a little hole in the "yes" half of the bin, which was twice as full as the "no" half.

"Cigarettes are the number one piece of litter found all over the world, like in beach cleanups and cities, and it's plastic! And they're toxic to wildlife and humans," Zambrano-Lee, 24, said.

With this in mind, Zambrano-Lee decided to clean up Brunswick's cigarette litter in a fun way — with cigarette ballot boxes along the downtown area.

Zambrano-Lee obtained the boxes through a grant. The city installed them.

The yellow boxes have a question for the public with two possible answers. People "vote" by disposing of their cigarette butts in the slot corresponding with their answer.

Lee and Zambrano-Lee will change the questions quarterly.

Ballot Bin, the company Zambrano-Lee got her bins from, says on its website the bins have been shown to reduce cigarette litter by 46 percent.

The duo have noticed a significant difference since the city installed the bins in the spring.

As Lee and Zambrano-Lee walked by Beans and the Belfry, a local coffee shop, a few cigarette butts were scattered on the ground. But they said the litter used to be much worse.

"I live on the street, so I walk back and forth, and sometimes people who will be here and they know that I've had a part hand in this will come running over and be like, 'I'm voting! I'm voting right now! These are so fun!'" Lee said.

The project started when Zambrano-Lee found she had a lot of time on her hands during the pandemic. She remembered hearing about Ballot Bins at universities and cities and decided to bring the idea to Brunswick.

Ballot Bins are prevalent in the United Kingdom and Europe, Zambrano-Lee said. She ordered bins from the United Kingdom for about $300 a bin.

In 2020, she applied for a Clean up Green up Grant — which helps develop community-based leadership and volunteer-based activities aimed at eliminating litter, implementing beautification and greening initiatives — from Keep Maryland Beautiful.

Brunswick Main Street, an organization aimed at revitalizing the city's downtown, got $2,700 in the spring of 2021 to buy five Ballot Bins and 10 freestanding cigarette receptacles.

By the spring of 2022, four bins and all 10 receptacles were installed in the historic downtown Brunswick area.

There is one bin left to install. It will be at the B&O Railroad Park being built on the east side of town, Zambrano-Lee said.

Lee said the Brunswick Department of Public Works will empty receptacles when they are full.

Lee and Zambrano-Lee said they'll ship the butts to a company called Terracycle, which aims to keep waste out of landfills by accepting recyclable material.

Terracycle will recycle cigarette butts into plastic pallets, Zambrano-Lee said.

The women plan to post results from the cigarette polls on the Main Street website and Brunswick's Facebook page.

They likely won't count the individual cigarettes for the results. They might try to weigh the butts.

While litter as a whole is troubling, Zambrano-Lee said, cigarette litter needs special attention. Cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate, or plastic fibers. They mix with the tobacco, which creates toxic chemicals and heavy metals that can leach into waterways and soil, she said.

There is a risk of people ingesting the toxins through water and food, she said.

"With Brunswick's location to the river and and you know, our storm water waste — like, if it rains and there is cigarette butts on the streets downtown, they get washed right into the storm drain, so storm drains feed right into the river," Lee said.

"And this entire town is on a hill," Zambrano-Lee added. "So, it's like everything is leading to the river."

Yet, people throw cigarette butts on the ground even though they wouldn't do that with other trash, Zambrano-Lee said.

"I saw some National Geographic thing where they call it the last acceptable form of littering," she said.

Follow Clara Niel on Twitter: @clarasniel