Port Phillip Baykeeper » cigarette butts

Surveys show – it’s raining butts!

BayKeeper — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:41:45 +0000

Cigarette butts accounted for 37% of litter items removed from City of Port Phillip beaches on Clean Up Australia Day 2011. 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 and why butts are dropped.

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.

A fresh approach to ciggie litter

BayKeeper — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 10:50:31 +0000

Cigarette butts accounted for 37% of litter items removed from City of Port Phillip beaches on Clean Up Australia Day 2011 by the Port Phillip Clean Beaches Coalition. Apart from the fact that ciggie filters don’t biodegrade and are laced with a range of toxic substances, these little suckers are so small they scoot straight through most litter traps!

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.

Cigarette butts bad news for the Bay

BayKeeper — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:28:15 +0000

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