Surfrider Foundation

Hold onto your butts.

Trade a Butt-For-A-Mint Machines were placed on Northern California’s most popular beaches.

Even with smoking rates low, 4.5 trillion flicked cigarette butts still find their way into our environment every year. Especially into our waterways. So we created a multimedia ad campaign featuring the aquatic victims of cigarette butt pollution to help jar people out of their complacency.

Then, we came up with an innovative solution that actually rewards smokers for doing the right thing.

We invented the first solar-powered vending machines that accept cigarette butts in exchange for breath mints. Just drop a butt and get a mint. Sweet! And we distributed them along Northern California’s beaches.