It began as work for a school project, but now a Nova Scotia man can’t seem to kick the habit.

Kyle Johannesen has been picking up discarded cigarette butts around the Nova Scotia Community College’s Strait Area campus for more than three months.

As a student at the college, Johannesen came up with the idea to show his fellow classmates what that much litter looks like in one place.

“A lot of people are grossed out by the amount I’ve collected,” Johannesen told CTV Atlantic on Thursday as he showed off a garbage bag of cigarette butts he collected on campus that weighed 37.4 pounds.

Johannesen said he posted photos of the pile of cigarette butts on social media where he was surprised by the reactions he received.

“People don’t realize how bad it is, but when you put it in a big pile like that, it really highlights the issue,” he said.

Even though his class project has been completed, Johannesen said he plans to keep picking up cigarette butts so he can send them to a recycling company in Toronto where the paper, tobacco, and ash will be turned into industrial-grade fertilizer, which is most often used on golf courses.

As for the cigarette butts’ plastic filters, Johannesen said they can be repurposed for just about anything.

“With the plastic building materials, you can make park benches for some towns, playgrounds. There’s a school with all of their recyclables that built a brand new playground,” he said. “There’s a lot you can do with plastic building materials.”

Johannesen said he will soon begin giving presentations to other classes on campus to educate them on the amount of cigarette butts he found. He said he also has some advice for those who do smoke.

“Regardless of how socially accepted it is, cigarettes are still litter,” he said. “They’re still polluting the environment. If you don’t have a place to put it, get a pocket ashtray. Get a plastic bag.”

The college student is also encouraging others to join him in cleaning up the environment – one cigarette butt at a time.

“It only takes time to collect the cigarettes,” Johannesen said.