Bin Your Butts

Cigarette butts are litter and littering is against the law. There are on-the-spot fines for littering.

Carry a personal ashtray

With your own container for butts, you won't be caught without a bin or risk the chance of an on-the-spot fine. For more information on the wide range of personal ashtrays available, visit the Butt Littering Trust website (see link below).

Reduce the impact on the environment

Cigarette butts are small, but they have a big impact on the environment. Around 7.2 billion cigarette butts are littered in Australia each year. If laid end-to-end, this line of butts would circle the earth 3.6 times.

Cigarette butts:

• account for 56% of all litter in Victoria
• have consistently made the top ten list of items picked up in the Clean Up Australia Day rubbish report since the first Clean Up Australia Day in 1990
• leach toxic chemicals - as the filter decomposes, it releases toxic chemicals into the environment, including 43 known carcinogens, such as ammonia, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, hydrogen, cyanide and arsenic 
• can be harmful to wildlife if ingested 
• are thought to cause as many as 1,200 grass and bushfires each year.
  

Reduce the spread of litter

Make sure your butt is safely in the bin. Because cigarette butts are small and light, they are easily blown from place to place or washed into the storm water system. Nearly two million butts are washed into Port Phillip Bay each week.

Set a good example

If butt litter is already there, other people are less concerned about 'doing the right thing' and the problem continues to grow. The litter becomes an eyesore and creates an unkempt, dirty image for an area.