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2026 Tobacco Product Waste
Student Project Contest

About the Contest

Are you a youth group leader, teacher, or high school student? The Center for Tobacco and the Environment at San Diego State University (SDSU) is hosting a contest for high school student groups in California to learn about and tackle tobacco product waste in their community.

Each team of high school students will complete a brief lesson on commercial tobacco’s effects in the environment, use the iKickButts app to research tobacco product waste around their school, and develop a project with their results. Projects entered as part of the contest should aim to address the problem of tobacco product waste in schools through education or advocacy. Learn more about the project and decide if it is a fit for your group by downloading and reviewing the Youth Toolkit and Leader Guide.

The Center is providing a recorded adult leader training presentation. Want step-by-step guidance through our Leader Guide? Click the button below to watch the 20-minute training!

View Leader Training
Download Flyer

Eligibility

High school students in the state of California are eligible to participate. An adult leader is necessary for the process to guide the student(s) through educational content, help them create a project in the app, and supervise during data collection.

If you would like to participate as an individual and are not affiliated with a school or organization, please email us at tobacco.center@sdsu.edu.

Prizes and Opportunities

There are multiple paths to win! The three award categories include a School Improvement Award, Community Engagement Award, and Policy Advocacy Award. Only one team in each category will be the overall winners and receive a cash prize, but there are prizes for runners-up and honorable mentions.

Category Winners

Cash Prize for Organization

Presentation Opportunity at 3rd Annual Symposium in SD

Project Featured on CTE Website and Social Media

Choice of (1) iKickButts Merch Item Per Student

Runner Ups

Presentation Opportunity at 3rd Annual Symposium in SD

Project Featured on CTE Website and Social Media

Choice of (1) iKickButts Merch Item Per Student

Honorable Mentions

Project Featured on CTE Website and Social Media

Choice of (1) iKickButts Merch Item Per Student

How to Register

Step 1

Download the iKickButts app from the App Store or Google Play Store and create an account in the app.

Step 2

Set up your project in the app by March 8th, 2026. Navigate to the “Forum” tab, then click “Request a Project”.

Step 3

Please download the Youth Toolkit and Leader Guide on this page for project guidelines.

Contest Toolkit & Resources

Contest guidance materials and the iKickButts smartphone app are completely free to use. All teams should download and refer to the Youth Toolkit and Leader Guide for project guidelines and detailed instructions.

Download the Youth Toolkit
Download the Leader Guide

Important Dates & Deadlines

The contest opens on January 31st, 2026, and the last day to register a project in the app is March 8th, 2026. Please review the Youth Toolkit and Leader Guide and submit your project request in the app by the deadline on March 8th. This time frame is to allow at adequate time for each student group to collect data and create their project.

Projects must be submitted to the Center on or before May 1st, 2026.

Winners and runners-up in each category will be announced on May 15th, 2026. For the two teams in each category that are invited to present their projects at the Center’s 3rd Annual Research Symposium, the event will be held in San Diego, California, on May 29th, 2026.

Submit a Contest Entry

Have you completed your project and shared your findings? Click the button below to go to the entry submission form for the 2026 Tobacco Product Waste Student Project Contest. Make sure to complete the checklist in your Youth Toolkit and have everything ready to upload before submitting.

Submit Contest Entry

Frequently Asked Questions

Tobacco product waste (TPW) is the waste from commercial tobacco and nicotine products, including waste from cigarettes, cigars, e-cigarettes, vapes, nicotine pouches, and more. Cigarette butts make up the majority of tobacco product waste in the environment, and they are the number one littered plastic item in the world. More than 4 trillion cigarette butts are discarded every year across the world, polluting our neighborhoods, parks, rivers, and oceans with microplastics and carcinogens. 

The iKickButts app is a free smartphone app developed here at the Center for Tobacco and the Environment. The app provides the tools you need to collect and share data about tobacco product waste to support efforts to protect the public from toxic tobacco pollution. Using iKickButts, you can photograph, map, classify, and count tobacco, electronic cigarette, and cannabis waste. Once you have data, you can share findings on social media, download data, create reports, and use the findings to advocate in your community. To learn more about the app, visit the website at iKickButts.org.

  1. Download iKickButts from the App Store or Google Play and set up an account. Complete the tutorials and read the user manual on iKickButts.org.
  2. Log into your account, click on the Forum tab, and select “Request a Project” to be directed to the project request form.
  3. You will need to indicate want your project to be “open” or “closed”. Please select “closed” so that only youth on your team will be able to contribute. This will make interpretation of your data easier (i.e., you will have control over when data are collected).
  4. You will be notified in less than 5 business days that your project has been set up. (If you require a faster response, please e-mail us at contact@ikickbutts.org.

First, check the Frequently Asked Questions page on the iKickButts website here. If you don’t find the answer to your question or if you are experiencing a technical problem with the app, please reach out to us at contact@ikickbutts.org. 

Please follow the instructions in the Youth Toolkit to submit your project through the button on this page. When submitting, make sure to include a copy of your team’s completed Youth Toolkit, your report downloaded from the iKickButts app, and any other components of your project. This could involve uploading a video, screenshots or links to social media posts, a presentation, or documentation of anything else your team creates as part of your project.

Secret Link