Cigarette butts bad news for the Bay
Cigarettes have been marketed as glamorous for the girls and macho for blokes…. anyone happy to set something in their mouth on fire has got to be a ‘cool and can-do’ type! Unfortunately, due to choices many of these people make, hundreds of thousands of cigarette butts enter the Bay each year via stormwater drains; and some see no problem in tossing butts on beaches. When the tosser is long gone their butts are here to stay, up to 15 years according to some sources.
Bad news butts at St Kilda West Beach
Butts aren’t just an aesthetic problem. Their filters,made of plastic filaments, trap particulates including arsenic; and butts have been found in the stomachs of a range of marine animals. The good news is that some people are doing something about it. Residents of Albert Park have formed the 3206 Beach Patrol, with each member pledged to spend an hour a month picking up litter from their beach. It’s great to see community action such as this… so simple it works! Hopefully other communities around the bay will pick up on the idea!
Visit www.3206beachpatrol.com.au
Our beaches are geting environmentally poisoned!!! The people must be MAD polluting our beaches. I’m disgusted that our marine life in the bay are getting killed!!! I think our only hope is to pick it up our self.
We could take cigarettes away and not make them anymore, so people dont throw there cigarettes on the ground beacause its killing people and the animals in the ocean, also plastic bags and, oil and rubbish.
The people that smoke should be careful where they throw their cigarettes.
Maybe we should put more signs of no smoking up.
I am shocked at how many cigarettes there are on the beach, maybe we should put the price up on cigarettes.
my opinion is that people are polluting the ocean. I am disgusted, this sutuation is getting worse and worse.I think the solution is to stop throwing rubish on inviromentel places.
Totally agree with you Sebastian. The good news is that many young people like you are not happy about the rubbish in the Bay and won’t make the same mess. Great to hear from you. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing your ideas Max. I really appreciate it. Some Australian cities have already, or soon will ban smoking on beaches. So we’ll be sure to see more NO SMOKING signs. The best solution would be for people not to start smoking in the first place. Save money and the environment!
That’s an interesting idea Lance, but could be tricky to make it happen. The people who don’t throw rubbish around would complain that they’re being punished for something they haven’t done. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone tried to avoid buying things wrapped in unnecessary packets that only get used once?
Good on you Louie! Are you related to Action Man by any chance? It seems to me that the best results usually happen if there are a few different ideas working to solve a problem the same time. People should stop smoking; and those that that still do should be made to take more responsibility for their butts. But as you say, we should help clean up the environment. It’s the best way to show we really do care.