Engineers from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University) are investigating using old cigarette butts to make bricks.
So far the research, being led by Abbas Mohajerani, has found it is possible to include cigarette butts in light weight bricks. About five percent of the raw materials for their bricks are cigarette butts.
Furthermore the research has shown the inclusion of butts reduces the energy normally needed to make bricks. (The heat and energy generally used to produce light weight bricks drops by about 60 percent if five percent of the raw materials are cigarette butts.)
Light weight bricks can be used for most buildings except if heavy load, high strength bricks are needed.
Mohajerani and his team of post graduate researchers also found bricks containing more than five percent of butts were unsatisfactory and weaker. This was because more butts meant the bricks absorbed too much water.
The butts were provided by Buttout Australia, a company which supplies public outdoor cigarette disposal uints.
They were disinfected and heated at 105 degrees celsius for one day before being mixed with the brick raw materials.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/19211990.Cigratte-Butt-Business-Idea