烟草在线据时代华纳有线报道编译　　据保持美国的美丽组织说，卷烟烟蒂是美国唯一最被乱扔弃的物品。但在我们看到垃圾的地方，经济技术展示公司的首席执行官和创始人尼古拉斯·加比登（Nicholas Gabbidon）看到的却是机遇。

　　尼古拉斯·加比登回想起来说：“当他们停止在室内吸烟的时候，就给室外造成了很大的垃圾问题。当我们看到这种情况的时候，我们就说，你知道人人将会需要一个烟灰缸了，因此，这是一个我们可以进入的完美业务。”

　　加比登的公司，即经济技术展示公司给吸烟者往往会聚集的经营场所提供小的垃圾容器。这些盒子是免费的，但公司并不是慈善机构。他们通过出售他们认为可见程度很高的地方，比如酒吧和饭店外的广告位来赚钱。

　　经济技术展示公司的公关董事Larry Dell说：“你可能会看到一个月里，或者一个星期里，成百上千的人聚集在这里。这些人群基本上是比较年轻的人，年轻的城市专业人士或游客，如果你想要用自己的产品来会一会这些人，会一会那些没有你们产品的人，那我们有完美的方式让你与他们建立联系。”

　　但那只是他们设想作为双向收入流的一个方面。他们致力于研究一种用收集到的卷烟烟蒂制造的原型材料：一种可以用于制造象珠宝或吉他琴拨这样的众多物品的可回收塑料。它是一种海外几家企业已经大力发展起来的理念。

　　加比登说：“我们发现，有一位绅士将它们过滤之后，又将它们重新纺到羊毛里做布料，还有另一家公司利用它们做通油管，用来涂覆内层。”

　　但这不只是一种公司用废弃物创造出来的新型绿色材料。它们还创造新的绿色就业。

　　公司在纽约市里及周边，有160个点，而且还计划向全国扩展，他们说，他们会需要工人来安装和维护这些盒子，出售广告空间，更不用提还需要在回收烟蒂，给烟蒂赋予新用途的工厂里安排员工了。

　　加比登说：“回收利用可以创造很多很多就业。你知道卷烟只是一种物品，我们相信，还有很多被我们扔弃，而没有意识到它可以被创造成别的东西，帮助在全国创造就业的垃圾。”

　　评论：从垃圾中尤其是一些司空见惯的事物看到机遇，需要的是非凡的眼光。经济技术展示公司从室外的烟蒂中看到的机遇，的确让人惊讶。该公司不仅把提供烟灰缸的地方看做是做广告的好机会，而且还打算回收烟蒂制作有用的物品，还能为更多的人创造就业机会。在当前快速消费的时代，人们养成了“喜旧厌新”的习惯，热衷“追赶潮流”，大量物品快速地被更新换代，地球的可用资源被过度消耗。如果我们都像加比登一样，睁大了发现的眼睛，那么不但会减少资源的消耗，说不定还能寻找到一直被我们视而不见的“金矿”呢。

New York: Smoking Bans Create Green Opportunity

　　According to Keep America Beautiful, cigarette butts are the single most littered item in the country. But where we see trash, CEO and Founder of EcoTech Displays Nicholas Gabbidon saw opportunity.

　　"When they stopped smoking inside, they created a big littering problem outside," recalls Gabbidon. "When we saw this we said, you know everyone's gonna need an ash tray, so it was a perfect business for us to go into."

　　Gabbidon's company, EcoTech Displays, provides small receptacles to businesses where smokers tend to gather. The boxes are free, but the company isn't a charity. They make money by selling ad space in what they say are highly visible locations like outside of bars and restaurants.

　　"You may see hundreds, thousands of people here during the month, or during the week. And their crowd is basically younger people, young urban professionals and tourists so if you want to meet those people with your product and who doesn't, well we have the perfect way for you to come in contact with them," says EcoTech Displays Communications Director Larry Dell.

　　But that's only one aspect of what they envision as a two-way revenue stream. They are working on a prototype material made from the collected cigarette butts: A post-consumer plastic that can be used to make any number of things like jewelry or guitar picks. It's a concept that's already spawned several businesses overseas.

　　"We found one gentleman that was filtering them and re-spooling them into wool to make clothing, another company that was using them for oil pipes to coat the inside," notes Gabbidon.

　　But it's not just a new green material the company is creating out of the discarded waste. They're also creating new green jobs.

　　With 160 units in and around New York City and plans to expand nationwide, they say they'll need workers to install and maintain the boxes and sell the ad space, not to mention staff the plant where the collected butts will be recycled and repurposed.

　　"Recyclables can create many, many jobs. You know the cigarettes are just one thing, that I'm sure there's so much litter that we discard and don't even realize that it can be recreated into something else and help create jobs all over the country," says Gabbidon.