Enforcement Week - follow up on Butt Free City Week

During this week from 25 to 28 March 2008 the ACT Government City Rangers will be reinforcing the message of the Butt Free City Week. They will be speaking to smokers about littering and possibly issuing fines to those smokers caught littering cigarette butts.  Please remember to Butt it, then Bin it!

Butt Free City Campaign

The message is clear – the ACT is getting tougher on cigarette butt litterers.
Since 2005, the ACT have particpated in the Butt Free City Campaign.

The Butt Free City Campaign (BFC) is an annual national week of action to reduce butt littering in central business district areas in Australia. It is facilitated by the independent Butt Littering Trust and run in partnership with participating councils/governments.

Since 2005, Canberra (the Department of TAMS) have participated in this campaign and have gained a positive effect on the number of cigarette butts littered in the City centre.

The BFC comprises of one working week of education and liaison with smokers to get the message across of ‘Butt it, then Bin it’.

This is not an anti smoking campaign; it is an environmental campaign that aims to reduce the number of
cigarette butts littered.

Watch out this year for educators roaming the City and approaching smokers about their butt littering behaviour. You can't miss the educators as they will be in bright blue t-shirts with the Butt Free City logo.

The Butt Littering Trust

The Butt Littering Trust is an independent environmental organisation, run by a Board of Trustees specialising in waste management and behaviour change. Currently funded under the Extended Producer Responsibility initiative by
British American Tobacco Australia.
See the Butt Littering Trust website for more information.

Cigarette Butt Key Facts

Cigarette butts by number (not size), are the most commonly littered item in Australia (KAB national litter index)

It is estimated 7 billion butts are littered p.a (with this number likely to increase with indoor smoking bans)

The Butt Free City impact so far...

26.6% average reduction in butt littering across all our project contexts to date

Over 80,000 people has been exposed to face to face education

Over 25,000 pledge from smokers to bin their butts in the past 2 years