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Cairns Local News
NEWS
Councils take a hard line on butts
NEWS
Friday June 27, 11, 2021 Friday August
NO IFS, NO BUTS,
PETER MCCULLAGH
PETER MCCULLAGH
ACROSS our region Councils all see cigarette butt litter as an issue. Smokers and encouraged to dispose of their butts responsibly when in public with councils installing public ashtrays to encourage responsible disposal of butts. Douglas Shire recently installed four new cigarette ash trays along the centre space in Macrossan Street Port Douglas. This was a direct response to an audit that found more than 2200 cigarette butts in high profile areas along Macrossan Street. Follow up inspections have shown a decrease of cigarette butts around previous hotspots. Cairns takes a slightly harder line with regard to cigarette butt littering. Flicking a cigarette butt onto the ground is considered littering. It is illegal under Queensland Government legislation and carries a fine of $275, which is also set by the State as it’s a fine under their legislation with fines of $275 for littering. There are significant public space areas in Cairns where smoking is prohibited. The Cairns Esplanade skate park and children’s play areas along with the
THEY’RE small and for most parts probably considered by some to be inoffensive, but for the majority of the population and much of our marine life they are an environmental hazard and highly toxic. WE are talking cigarette butts here. Last year more than 18 billion cigarettes were smoked every day, a total of 5.6 trillion for the year. Staggering figures when you consider it, with a large percentage used cigarette butts discarded inappropriately.
cinogens including, benzene, most commonly found in motor vehicle exhaust fumes, arsenic and other compounds commonly found in fungicides, batteries and paints. A rather toxic mix when discarded and left to leech into our natural environment. In 2009 San Diego State University researcher, Richard Gersberg conducted extensive research into the hazardous habit of discarding a used cigarette butt. Gersberg evaluated the effects discarded cigarette butts have on marine life and found that the chemical from just one filtered
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Lagoon are all no-go areas for smokers, along with the Healing Garden (opposite the hospital). There are public ashtrays throughout the CBD and Esplanade encouraging visitors and locals to butt-out responsibly. It is hoped the public ashtrays adjacent the newly redeveloped outdoor dining area of the Esplanade will be reinstalled now that capital works are completed on the dining precinct. A recent inspection found dozens of discarded butts metres from the new rubbish bins. There are no public ashtrays with the bins.
18 billion cigarettes are smoked daily - worldwide
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The World Wildlife Fund estimates that almost 8 billion cigarette butts are littered each year in Australia. Clean Up Australia reports that cigarette butts are over 20 per cent of all recorded litter in Australia. So why exactly is this a major issue, after all they are only small in size? Cigarette butt filters are made from a non-bio-degradable plastic (cellulose acetate) and if discarded effectively rendering them single-use. Queensland Health reports that cigarette butts contain significant traces of car-
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cigarette butt had the ability to kill fish in a one-litre bucket of water. “The most important finding in this research is that it seems to be the filter, or rather what’s in the leftover filter that is most dangerous to our water,” Gersberg said. Each year in Australia billions of cigarette butts are discarded with potentially catastrophic effect upon our marine environment. UNESCO recently moved to list the Great Barrier Reef as endangered. Some of the key issues that needed addressing included marine plastics pollution as well as water quality. A cigarette butt in
a marine environment is non-biodegradable and also a source of significant chemical pollution to the marine eco-system. Shannon Mead, founder of Butts No More believes we have to take significant steps immediately to protect this delicate eco-system.
“With 8 billion cigarette butts littered into the Australian environment annually and approximately 10 per cent of these butts ending up in our waterways we have a serious problem. “Each cigarette butt takes up to 15 years to break down, this
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