Campaign launched to curb cigarette butt litter

Keep New Zealand Beautiful and Taupō District Council have teamed up to put an end to cigarette butt litter in the Taupō district, launching the ‘No Ifs, Butts or Maybes’ campaign on Wednesday 29 June.

The campaign, in which 40 specially designed, vandal-proof cigarette butt bins are being given to the district by Keep New Zealand Beautiful, is designed to encourage smokers to ‘do the right thing’. The bins will be installed in busy pedestrian locations in Taupō, Turangi and Mangakino and will be maintained and emptied by Council’s refuse contractor.

Mayor Rick Cooper officially launched the ‘No Ifs, Butts or Maybes’ campaign in the Council Chambers on Wednesday, thanking Keep New Zealand Beautiful for the bins. “We know in Taupō how prolific cigarette butt litter can be, so this initiative is greatly received. And with the influx of domestic and international visitors expected for Rugby World Cup 2011 this is an opportune time to be launching the campaign.”

Mayor Cooper reminded everyone that ‘What goes down the grate goes into the lake’. “Council has invested a lot in protecting our Great Lake. We have the biggest waterway in the southern hemisphere and it needs looking after.”

Mayor Cooper says the Taupō District is open to new approaches to waste minimisation. “We have recently installed some solar-powered ‘big belly’ compactor bins in the Taupō CBD and have gained an extra 30 Love NZ bins for public recycling of plastic and glass bottles.” He says the recently installed ‘enviro-pods’, which collect rubbish entering stormwater grates in the CBD, stop thousands of butts from entering our lake every day. “We hope these butt litter bins will help towards reducing this.

Keep New Zealand Beautiful National Programme Manager Mary Brown presented Council with the bins, thanking them for their proactive approach to litter prevention. “It’s great to have the support of councils with initiatives like this.” She says the campaign is about changing smokers’ behaviour. “Smokers often contribute to a massive litter problem which severely degrades the look and feel of our beautiful community and environment when they drop or ‘flick’ their butts without thinking twice. We are taking away the excuse of not having anywhere to put their butts by providing the infrastructure.”

Ms Brown says that although cigarette butts may seem tiny, collectively they can do significant damage to waterways and coastal areas. “On average 35,000 cigarette butts are washed into the Hauraki Gulf each day. That’s millions every week for the entire country; this is not a tiny issue.”

Ms Brown says the recent studies have shown a reduction of between 60-80 percent in cigarette butt litter in areas where the bins have been installed. She encourages businesses where smoking may be common, such as bars and back-packers, to also get in touch with Keep New Zealand Beautiful to obtain their own cigarette bins. “These are available for business free of charge and are a great way to encourage smokers to keep your premises tidy.”