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Never mind second-hand cigarette smoke, Vancouver's poorest smokers care about finding second-hand tobacco, in the form of cigarette butts. Now those poor nic-heads doing their butt runs downtown have a potentially new obstacle or opportunity, depending, thanks to the City of Vancouver's pilot program to recycle cigarette butts.

Yesterday, The Cigarette Waste Brigade pilot project began with the installation of 110 recycling receptacles in four areas of the downtown business district. These will naturally be the areas identified as being commonly littered with the most butts -- and, they will, just as naturally, be well-known hot spots for people looking for butts for the tobacco. Now some or all of that potential bounty will be in locked, steel receptacles -- bad for the casual seeker, but good for the hardcore picker who's "handy" with locked boxes -- "Thanks for keeping our butts dry, suckas!"