Before Steve Patterson was the mayor of Athens, he was a psychology professor and a City Council member, who moonlighted as a doorman at Tony’s Tavern on Friday nights.

While working, he noticed a large amount of litter and cigarettes that would gather outside of the bar and on the street, which increased when a ban on smoking inside of bars was passed in 2007. 

“You would walk up and down Court Street on a Saturday or Sunday morning and there were cigarette butts all over the place,” Patterson said. “That, and gum.”

Eventually, Patterson became curious as to how many cigarette butts were actually being littered on the ground. Using Athens Beautification Day, a yearly event to keep the city clean, as his laboratory, he worked alongside students and picked up 8,100 cigarette butts from Schafer Street to the end of Court Street. This sparked Patterson to research grant funding for reducing cigarette butt litter. He stumbled upon Keep America Beautiful’s “Cigarette Litter Prevention Program,” an initiative that gives grants to communities up to $5,000 to reduce cigarette butt litter.

Patterson applied for the grant and looked for cigarette waste disposal devices. He drew inspiration from Vancouver, which had long tubular or square fixtures attached to their lampposts specifically for cigarette litter. He opted for a small, square box that would be mounted on to lampposts. When he received the grant money, he purchased 40 receptacles from various sellers. About six months into the grant cycle, he decided to also apply to the Athens Foundation, a local philanthropic organization, for another grant. In total, he had 66 receptacles that were ready for use.

He then contacted Passion Works Studio, an arts studio in Athens that works with disabled people, and worked in conjunction with Mallory Valentour, the production coordinator and staff artist, to paint the receptacles and “punch them up and make them a little more Athens funky,” Patterson said.

“They came in huge boxes, and they’re not light,” Valentour said. “It took us a while to complete each one from start to finish.”

Each receptacle had to be sanded many times in order to get the sticker off and get the metal coarse enough so that the paint would stick, Valentour said. They would then tape off certain areas that couldn’t receive paint, such as screws and the lock to the actual bin. Then they applied a base coat of spray paint, then a layer of acrylic paint and then the artist would paint their design. Finally, a clear coat was applied and then a sticker highlighting what the receptacle does.

“[The artists] could do pretty much what they wanted,” Valentour said. “We never set in on something knowing it’s going to end up exactly how we wanted. It kind of just happens.”

Most of the receptacles were painted with colorful patterns with swirls, boxes or line work while others were painted with abstract shapes and designs. The goal of this was to make the boxes noticeable while also adding some flair, Valentour said. The studio would work on a batch of 12 per week. In total, it took about six months from the time they received them to having them all painted and ready to be used.

The following year after all the receptacles had been bolted to the lampposts, Patterson returned to his laboratory to see if they actually made a difference. This time, students and he collected half as many cigarettes, with most of them coming from Union Street and Richland Avenue where they did not have any receptacles. This was a success, in Patterson’s book.

“I think they’re in a good location,” said Thomas Carberry, an Ohio University student. “I use them every day when I walk to class.”

Cigarette smokers agreed that the location of receptacles are good, and actually encourage them to dispose of their cigarettes. Some even said that before the receptacles were around, they would resort to throwing them on the street. Now, if a receptacle is nearby, there is “no excuse” to not use it, said Chase Harman, an Ohio University student.

Other smokers said they wished receptacles were in more specific places. Evan Davis, an Ohio University student, said that he would like receptacles directly in front of bar doors or outside on patios because other smokers, and admittedly himself, become lazy if there isn’t one directly in front of them.

Patterson said the receptacles are for the public and that they need to be in spaces that are visible. If he were to give receptacles to private businesses it would become their property, making them only available to their customers. However, he has shared with local businesses information about whom he bought the receptacles from and how much it would cost for Passion Works to paint them.

“I think they’re really attractive to the businesses,” Valentour said. “Because even the owners come [to Passion Works] and ask where they can get the receptacles and we don’t have them.”

The problem with cigarette butts is they are not biodegradable and composed of plastic, Patterson said. He said people think when they flick cigarettes on to the street or on the curb it will degrade, but it won’t. When it rains, any residual tobacco in the butt and the butt themselves can be plunged into the storm water system and eventually the Hocking River, potentially harming aquatic animals.

Due to the high foot traffic on Court Street, each receptacle is emptied two to three times a week. After collection, the cigarette butts are stored in a round drum at the city garage. Once it is full, the city ships it out to TerraCycle, a company that makes products from pre and post-consumer waste, free of charge. TerraCycle turns the cigarette butts into shipping palettes, waterproofing on pipes, pipe fittings and plastic two-by-fours that are used for park benches.

“[The butts] can get repurposed and turn into some pretty cool things that can be enjoyed by everyone,” Patterson said.

Patterson attributes a lot of the success of the receptacles to the art scheme because each one is unique. He also thinks that the art itself is the main reason why other municipalities outside of Athens have asked for donations of receptacles. He has given four to Nelsonville, eight to Haydenville and one to New Straitsville. He feels as if Athens is a role model and hopes that these receptacles show people that there are other ways of protecting the environment.

As of now, Patterson does not have any plans to add any more cigarette receptacles. He has shifted his focus into other green efforts, such as the newly implemented trash compactors and recycling stations on Court Street, as well as hopefully purchasing electric cars for the parking enforcement fleet to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.