With seven billion cigarette butts being littered in Australia, every year, Keep Australia Beautiful Queensland is pleased the Sunshine Coast community of Eumundi has decided to become Queensland’s first Butt Free Town.
Keep Australia Beautiful Queensland and Butt Free Australia are tackling cigarette butt littering head-on with behavioural change programs that educate, inform and encourage smokers to “butt it, and then bin it”.
As smokers become more aware of the environmental and social consequences of their littering behaviour, their attitudes are changing.
Keep Australia Beautiful Queensland CEO, Rick Burnett said that despite boasting Australia’s tidiest town (Caloundra), Queensland was also the “most littered mainland State in Australia” according to the 2009-2012 National Litter Index.
“It is time to really change people’s behaviour about litter,” Burnett said.”With an entire generation of Queenslanders growing up without a public awareness campaign like “Do The Right Thing”, the standards of caring social behaviour have dropped off and our environment and wildlife are suffering like never before.
“We are working with local communities to move them towards becoming butt-free. Smokers just have to bin their butts, not drop them on the ground.
“It is estimated seven billion butts are littered in Australia every year, and one-in-10 of those end up in waterways and the ocean. That’s 700 million butts a year in the Australian marine environment and that means tragedy for marine wildlife.”
The Butt Free Eumundi initiative is a joint program of Keep Australia Beautiful Queensland, Butt Free Australia, and the Eumundi Chamber of Commerce and is sponsored by the Sunshine Coast Council.
“This is a fantastic community commitment and a very positive message for the whole of Australia,” Burnett said. “I commend the participation of all those involved.”
Cigarette Butt bins and signage, encouraging residents and visitors to the town; to butt it and then bin it will be installed throughout the markets and Memorial Drive.
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