Discarded cigarette butts in the environment have caused significant pollution. Therefore, providing solutions to address these environmental issues is of great importance. Concrete is known as one of the most widely used materials around the world. Hence, this study investigates the feasibility of using cigarette butts to product concrete. For this purpose, cellulose acetate fibers obtained from cigarette butt filters were added to silica fume concrete in 10 different volume ratios. Then, the mechanical properties of the concrete samples, including compressive strength, Brazilian tensile strength, and flexural tensile strength, were examined. Based on the results, adding fibers to silica fume concrete improved the mechanical properties of the concrete. Among the 10 mixing designs, adding 0.2% by volume of fibers to silica fume concrete yielded the highest compressive and tensile strengths. In other words, adding 0.2% by volume of fibers resulted in a 16% and 34% increase in compressive strength and a 70% and 38% increase in Brazilian tensile strength at 7 and 28 days, respectively, compared to the state without cellulose acetate fibers. Additionally, the flexural tensile stress capacity increased by 56%. Furthermore, the vertical deformation tolerance in beam specimens increased by 287%, and the energy absorption capacity of the concrete beam also significantly increased. Consequently, along with the significant improvement in the mechanical properties of concrete, this study proposes a new and practical strategy to address the environmental issues caused by waste cigarette butts.
