What are councils doing about cigarette butt litter?

We asked councils to tell us what has worked for them, so that we could share the information with others. Two councils sent us detailed responses.

City of Greater Dandenong

The City of Greater Dandenong runs a comprehensive anti-cigarette butt litter campaign, which commenced in 2016.

Council developed bold videos, posters, stickers, event programming, new infrastructure and powerful media campaigns to communicate a unified ‘No Butts About It’ message that could be used in any locality throughout Victoria and/or Australia.

The specifically created character Ms No Butts (#msnobutts) featured in several short funny advertisements that run at the local cinema, and on screens throughout the municipality, on council’s web site and on YouTube.

The hashtag (#msnobutts) was put on a range of tote bags which are given away at community events to spread the message. Additionally, branded stickers and posters are offered to businesses throughout the municipality. Personal butt bins, portable event butt bins and permanent butt bins were circulated and installed with personal butt bins still available at community engagement events and Council’s Customer Service Centres.

As a result of this campaign, the sites surveyed demonstrated a more than 80% decrease in the number of cigarette butts littered.

A spokesperson for the Council said it is important to integrate the campaign into daily life at the council, not see it as a discrete campaign with start and finish dates.

Some of the resources mentioned above can be viewed here.

Byron Shire Council

Byron Shire Council used a NSW Environmental Protection Authority litter grant to implement a multifaceted litter campaign, with emphasis on the Cape Byron Marine Park. This included education, in partnership with community groups; infrastructure; enforcement and monitoring.

Education focussed on raising community awareness of the impact of littering on Cape Byron Marine Park. The Council formed an alliance with community groups from a variety of backgrounds: Australian Lifeguard Service North Coast; Cape Byron Marine Park; NPWS North Coast; North East Waste and Positive Change for Marine Life.

Council upgraded and expanded its existing butt bin network, replacing 27 butt bins in limited locations with 128 Enviropoles Shire wide. The Enviropole has a higher overall capacity, extinguishes the butt using a liquid medium, collects valuable data and allows the cigarette butts to be recycled via their partnership with Teracycle.

The Council included beaches in their no smoking areas and held six scheduled litter blitzes and enforced smoking bans in designated areas, but it did not issue any fines.

Monitoring was done for 12 months at 26 locations. The number of smoking related items collected per month fell from over 600 to less than 200. For more information on Byron Bay and littering.

Other Councils

Monash City Council has also made use of Ms No Butts. Perth City Council has worked with developers and businesses to promote no smoking and develops plans for where people can smoke.

Another idea we came across was a trial that Sunshine Coast Regional Council is doing. Do you prefer budgie smugglers or boardies? Queensland or NSW for the 2019 State of Origin? These are some of the questions that are being put to Alexandra Headlands residents through a voting ballot bin for cigarette butts.

For those near the Alexandra Headlands Surf Life Saving Club in need of a clever and convenient way to dispose of their cigarette, ‘voters’ can now place their butts in one of two sides of the bin. Based on their ‘votes,’ the side with the most butts wins, so to speak. For more information on this trial.

If you wish to share what your council is doing, please email us.