Question

How to disinfect cigarette butts?

Answer 1

I would say your biggest problem isn't disinfecting them of bacteria. That can easily be achieved using bleach, an autoclave or maybe even just heat (depending on how robust the filters are).

You're biggest problem is that they are covered in compounds known to be carcinogenic, which is going to make it really difficult to upcycle them.



HOPE HELPS ✌️

Answer 2

You can upscale this, but let’s assume you have a cup of butts.

Take some concentrated alcohol (ideally ethyl alcohol, 90% or so) and put it in a spray bottle.

Put the butts in a colander and lightly spray them from above. Then shake the colander to help in spreading the deposited droplets. Wait a few minutes as it evaporates, shake the colander again to expose new surfaces, and do it again. I would guess that after three repetitions 95% or more of the surface areas of the butts would have been exposed to enough alcohol to achieve a fairly high level of disinfection.

Simply putting them into a colander/strainer and then briefly dipping them into a buck of alcohol would also work.

Rubbing alcohol would be cheaper to use, HOWEVER I have no idea whether any remnants of that sort of treatment could be toxic. Indeed, I have no idea whether any interaction of even pure ethyl alcohol with the components of filter material etc could be toxic: that’s something you should likely research if you’re seriously pursuing this for some reason.

And I’d have to echo another Answerer: disinfection does nothing for the other components/toxins left on/in butts.

MJM, who would suggest stamp collecting as a hobby instead…