General News
6 June, 2022
Ciggies are as damaging TO OUR ENVIRONMENT AS THEY ARE TO US
THE world celebrated No Tobacco Day on Tuesday, May 31, to educate on tobacco’s damaging effects on our health.
Still, not-for-profit organisation No More Butts wants to raise awareness of the impact that ciggies and vapes pose on our environment.
No More Butts is a Queensland not-for-profit that works hand in hand with councils and government, raising awareness, implementing programs, advocating for infrastructure requirements (butt bins) around the region, and strengthening policies and legislation around cigarette pollution.
Founder of No More Butts and winner of the Cairns Volunteer of the Year Award, Shannon Mead, said the organisation had picked tens of thousands of butts from cleaning drives.
“We have picked up over tens of thousands,” Mr Mead said.
“That number is nowhere near the estimated of over a million littered in a week.
“We’ve moved towards raising awareness, working with councils and governments to drive systemic change rather than focusing on picking up those thousands of butts because they will be there again the next day.”
Mr Mead wants No Tobacco Day to become a platform to talk about how cigarettes comprise a great percentage of our littering and the significant damage it causes our environment.
“Cigarette butts can be in the environment for up to 15 years before they break up into microplastics,” he said.
“And as smokers are moving across to vapes, that is creating a new environmental threat.
“Vapes, in general, will have a battery; they’ll have a plastic or aluminium cover and all the chemicals.
“We’re going from having one plastic cigarette butt to potentially four different disposal issues.”
The disposal of e-cigarettes is problematic due to the need to separate and recycle its different parts to prevent them from getting into landfill.
Today, most councils, including Cairns Regional Council, do not allow vaping devices to be disposed of with electronic waste (e-waste).
“We need coordinated action across all councils and states to be identified as an ewaste to create an opportunity for household dropouts so it can be disposed of effectively,” Mr Mead said.
Mr Mead wants the message and momentum of No Tobacco Day to stick with people all year round.
“People will think of the impacts of tobacco and immediately think health,” he said.
“But the message goes a lot deeper than that; when you talk about the environmental impact, it goes beyond the littering of cigarette butts or the emerging threat of vaping.
“It’s also about the deforestation that takes place to make the products, the communities that are affected by creating those products, and the carbon footprint that comes with shipping these products worldwide.
“No Tobacco Day and every day is about being conscious of the environmental impact of tobacco, how smokers can reduce it and how we can dispose of these products effectively.”
