As with littering in general, cigarette butt littering is a complex behaviour.
Some people never litter, some only litter in certain circumstances or locations, while for others it is a repeated behaviour.
With regard to littering in general, people respond to the place they are in, the infrastructure that is available to them and the behaviour of those around them – and butt littering is no different.
Butt Free Australia acknowledges that there are many smokers who don't litter their butts. They take care to properly dispose of their cigarette butts, no matter where they are or what they are doing.
Many others, however, maintain attitudes and behaviour that continue to cause butt littering. For instance:
- Some simply do not see butt littering as littering at all. People who would normally recycle cans and packaging or dispose of other waste responsibly, still litter butts.
- Some are not aware that by dropping a butt on the ground they are contributing to an environmental problem.
- Some are unaware that cigarette butts can take years to decompose and think its okay to litter butts because they will break down.
- Some dismiss their responsibility and justify their behaviour because others take care of the litter problem by cleaning up.
- Some throw butts on the ground purely out of habit, with no thought of the consequences.
- Some blame not having anywhere to dispose of their butt responsibly. With the idea of always carrying a personal ashtray yet to catch on, they see it as a lack of appropriate infrastructure – someone else's fault.
To further understand the problem of butt littering, Butt Free Australia recently commissioned research to understand the deeper motivations of littering amongst different attitudinal segments of smokers.
The research looked at the occasions or situations when littering is most common and the justifications presented amongst those that litter.
It also looked at propositions that would be most effective in changing butt littering behaviour.
You can download our Fact Sheet 'Causes of Butt Littering' here (56 KB) or from our Resources section.
