Abstract: Cigarettes are removed from cartons, as a step in recovering the tobacco, by a machine which removes both side walls of the cartons and both ends of all of the packs in the cartons and directs jets of air generally axially towards the ends of the cigarettes to blow them out of the packs. Relatively thin, high pressure jets remove the center row of cigarettes, and relatively divergent, lower pressure air jets blow the remaining cigarettes out of the packs. A pneumatic separator separates the cigarettes from any particles or pieces of packaging materials blown from the packaging by the air jets.