As the cooler months approach it’s important to maintain the message that litter dropped on streets can end up in waterways. During the dry season in the north and winter of southern states, litter from the streets is blown or washed through drainage system, into fragile ocean environments.
Cigarette butts are made a type of plastic making them very light and mobile. One in ten butts dropped in Australian streets end up in waterways where they’re mistaken for food by fish, seals, turtles and other animals. Once the butts are ingested they can cause digestion problems or get caught in their gut.
The US Ocean Conservancy each year manages the International Coastal Clean Up which in 2008 collected 1.4 million cigarette butts from American beaches.
It’s estimated that around 7 billion butts are littered in Australia, which could equate to 700 million on our beaches, every year.
Blog: 18 March 2010
