MORE than 1100 cigarette butts a week are being discarded at public gathering points in Bathurst's CBD as council mounts a campaign to dramatically reduce the problem.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Bathurst Regional Council has received $35,000 in grant funding from the NSW Environmental Protection Authority to butt out cigarette litter.
Banishing Bathurst Butts is a behaviour change and educational project that will install butt bins and signage at CBD project sites with significant butt litter.
A proactive approach will communicate positive social norming through a social media blitz, strategic advertising and signage, media communication and enforcement.
ALSO MAKING NEWS:
Mayor Bobby Bourke said checks completed by council's environmental officers found large quantities of unlawfully discarded cigarette butts in the CBD area.
"Public transport terminals, parking infrastructure, thoroughfares and entryways to shopping centres were areas of significant butt littering," Cr Bourke said.
"Across six sites a total of 3548 butts were observed as littered on the ground, in garden beds and in gutters.
"It is also worth noting that areas are cleaned regularly by council. Using this data, it was conservatively estimated that across the project's CBD sites more than 1176 butts are littered per week."
Discarded cigarette butts contain more than 400 harmful chemicals that can leach into the natural environment and waterways when littered, causing a range of impacts.
Research from the NSW Environment Protection Authority has indicated that about 1.32 billion butts are littered in NSW each year. Through preventative projects in public places almost 800 million can be prevented from entering the environment.
Banishing Bathurst Butts aims to increase local binning rates by 50 per cent and decrease CBD cigarette butt litter by 70 per cent.
"Council would like to encourage all Bathurst community members to engage with the project on social media and help establish a zero-butt litter expectation throughout our CBD," Cr Bourke said.
What do you think?
- Why not write us a letter to the editor ...