Ross installing his savvy solution to plastic pollution

Better still, he’d already installed several other traps on City of Port Phillip foreshores; and negotiated with CoPP to have the traps maintained and monitored by the local beach cleaning crew.

A tailor made trap for a Port Melbourne outfall

Ross has designed the traps to be quite robust but economical. While not huge, they are large enough to contain the expected litter load and still allow high stormwater flows to escape rather than blocking up and causing localised flooding upstream. We’ll be working with Ross to see how the traps perform over the coming summer to evaluate the designs and rectify any maintenance issues.

Buttbusters: Adam, Neil, Seb and Loraine with the story so far

During August and September local volunteers and Melbourne University Ormond College students collected and recorded the location of cigarette butts found in a 500m section Blessington Street St Kilda and a 200m section of St Kilda South beach.

A total of 19,453 butts were found in 5 surveys. The impact of rainfall was dramatically demonstrated on Grand Final day when 8,283 butts were found on the beach after several days of rain. Only 1,194 butts had been found on the beach in the previous 4 surveys when there had been little rainfall.

Collected butts.

Recording where butts are found has enabled butt ‘hotspots’ to be identified as a basis for practical solutions to reduce the problem. So far, the surveys show that while some shops in footpath trading areas regularly have the highest counts, serious numbers of butts have also been found in residential areas.

Baykeeper is keen to hear from residents, traders, and smokers with positive ideas to improve stormwater quality and reduce this ongoing source of pollution to the Bay.

In search of a positive solution, Baykeeper has teamed with Ormond College (Melbourne Uni) students and the City of Port Phillip’s Community Pulse program to better understand where the butts come from. The team has conducted 4, fortnightly surveys so far, collecting butts from a 500m section of Blessington Street, St Kilda; the car park at St Kilda Marina Reserve; and, the 120m St Kilda South Beach.

Butts on the street sail away when it rains!

A total of 11,857 butts have been collected. The team has recorded where each butt was found. As there has been relatively low rainfall over the survey period, only around 10% have been found on the beach. 8% were in the Marina Reserve carpark; 35% in front of businesses and the rest near residences and parks.

Understanding where the hotspots are provides a basis for positive solutions to the issue. The next steps include talking to local government, residents, traders and smokers to explore how they can be part of the solution. Baykeeper welcomes anyone interested in joining the butt safari team, or forming their own team to survey other areas.