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Hold On To Your Butt; "Butts off beaches":
by Stuart Ball, Surfrider Foundation (Australia) General Manager
2004, Eden Brewis (volunteer) & the web team.
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The Australian Surfrider
Foundation has praised the decision of two Sydney council’s
in banning cigarette smoking on beaches and has called for
similar bans Australia wide.
The foundation has been lobbying for several
years and has been promoting their Hold on to Your Butt
campaign under the Respect the Beach
program since 1998.
Surfrider Foundation General Manager, Mr.
Stuart Ball says Surfrider’s aim is to educate the public
of the damage they do to the environment, particularly the
waterways, as a result of carelessly discarding cigarette
butts.
“Our campaign is aimed at educating smokers
that their discarded cigarette butts are not only a major
eye sore, but a serious pollution problem as well,” said
Mr. Ball.
7 million toxic butts are disposed of inappropriately
every year and many have been found in the stomachs of young
birds, sea turtles and other marine creatures.
"We aren't insisting smokers give up their
habit, although of course this is the most positive solution,
only that they dispose of their rubbish responsibly rather
than on the street or beach," Mr. Ball went on to say,
“ … surfers, swimmers and other beach users are 'drowning'
in butts, and when smokers discard their cigarette butts onto
our streets, with the present storm drain system, our beaches
become the eventual resting place for these thousands of little
pieces of garbage.”
“People assume that when the butts go into
the storm drain, they are intercepted by a sewer system and
sadly, this is not the case.”
The Surfrider Foundation has been distributing
stickers, newsletters and Hold On To Your Butts containers
in the hopes of reducing the amount of cigarette butts found
on our beaches and plans to continue its campaign until beaches
become butt free.
There will be no 'butts' about it.
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Article posted
7th June 2004
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