NEWS
Friday August June 11,27, 2021 2021
NEWS
These butts are out!
Do these butts belong on our beaches? will cause untold damage to our environment. “We need the governments, manufacturers, retailers and consumers to work collectively for a solution to this problem, but ultimately it’s the consumer who has to take responsibility for safe and
appropriate disposal of the cigarette butts.” Founded in 2020, No More Butts has worked to raise the awareness of the impact these tiny parcels of plastic can have on our environment. “We are not anti-smoking,
that’s a matter of choice for the individual, what we would love to see is the responsible disposal of a cigarette butt or even the recycling of the filter.” With the introduction of the single-use-plastics ban on September 1 the focus has been on larger
more visible plastics. However, a cigarette butt if discarded after use, becomes a single-use-plastic polluting and directly impacting upon our marine life. Plastics campaigner and author Katherine Nelson is familiar with the impact cigarette butts have on our environment. Cigarette butts are always a top item we find. “I’m always happy to get these rank little sticks off the beaches, but it never ceases to amaze me how many get tossed into the environment considering how toxic they are! “Despite less people smoking, they definitely have stayed at the top as the most common types of marine debris found,” Ms Nelson said. A 2019 report in the UK found that the average person will ingest 2000 microplastic particles each week, the equivalent of a credit card in weight. “If we use less plastic - individually and collectively - then there will be less plastic breaking up into these microplastics that we then ingest. “I would like to see governments ban plastics and hold corporations accountable for the plastics they produce and distribute. Fining them and taxing them for the pollution their cheap products inevitably create.”
Cairns Local News
Butt out is the message for all
|7
PETER MCCULLAGH
FOUNDED in Cairns in 2020 by Shannon Mead, Butts NO More is an organisation committed to the reduction of cigarette butts and potentially the commercial recycling of the filter. After a global career within the IT&T industry Shannon Mead had an epiphany in 2018 on a beach littered with cigarette butts in Greece. Thinking this would be a major issue in Asia where he was based at the time, Mead started planning for the foundation of his Butts No More campaign. COVID forced Mead back to Australia where he discovered the issue is global and Australia has a real problem with discarded cigarette butts like the rest of the world. “I settled in Cairns as my base, with the close association with the reef and the world heritage areas, Cairns residents tend to be more aware to many of the issues we face with plastics.” The Butts No More approach is based upon five pillars for success in reducing or removing cigarette butts from our environment. They work to re-educate people, businesses, and governments regarding correct disposal of the butts. They actively work with organisations and councils with clean-ups and retrievals of the discarded filters, along with a strong push to pro-
mote recycling. Currently both the Byron Shire and the City of Melbourne recycle cigarette butts, however there is no commercially viable recycling facility in Australia. Researchers at RMIT are actively working in this space to create options for viable commercial scale recycling. The final pillars that under pin Butts No More’s approach is research as well as reward. Working with companies and councils, they actively research alternative recycling options as well as monetisation of the waste product. It will be a long process requiring generational change, but Mead and his Butts No More members are passionate about a better, cleaner future for future generations. To find out more about Butts No More you can visit their website: www.nomorebutts.org.au
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