Butt Free Australia

Skip to content

Assess

Assessing the cigarette butt littering problem in your area allows you to accurately determine where the worst of the problem is – the 'hotspots' – and possible causes.

Behavioural change projects require significant planning and resources. It's therefore wise to accurately determine litter hotspots to appropriately focus resources on a clearly defined target. The alternative is to apply a one-size-fits-all approach to an assumed problem in an undefined area and hope for a clear result – like trying to hit an unknown target while wearing a blindfold.

For example, you may assume there aren't enough bins, invest money installing more to find no reduction in litter. Research might reveal the bins already present are hidden, in areas people don't use or so dirty and fire-prone that smokers avoid using them.

Or perhaps, you may assume that 9-5 office workers litter footpaths and invest in an education campaign during the day, partnering with large multinational corporations. Careful assessment may reveal that overnight shift workers working in call centres are the source of the littering, and are therefore unaware of your campaign.

Butt litter vs. butt littering

Identification of project litter hotspots is done by assessing butt litter. This will provide data to indicate where most butt litter is on the ground. The project will then be developed to reduce butt littering – the behaviour of butt littering – which will in turn reduce butt litter on the ground.

Assessment of butt litter hotspots is done first at a national and state level, then in greater detail at the local level.

Assessment of butt litter at the local level will help identify the situation, or Context, in which most littering is occurring. Understanding the major Context will help better tailor your project.

Butt litter hotspot assessment

Assessment of butt litter hotspots requires quantitative assessment: the number of butts on the ground, where they are and when.

As large scale quantitative data can be expensive to collect, it is ideal to source data already available at national and state levels to provide background for local assessment.

At the local level, qualitative information can also help complete the Assessment. Qualitative information is narrative and may include anecdotal information such as opinion or perception. It's relevant to the assessment of the butt littering problem, but does not represent the overall problem: an informal picture of the parts, rather than the whole.

National level

Butt Free Australia is at the centre of butt littering behaviour reduction nationally through research, advocacy and practical projects in partnership with government, business and the community. Since 2003 the organisation has been reporting on trends and influences on butt littering hotspots sourced through close contact with major cities across Australia, attention to legislative change and reference to the comprehensive Keep Australia Beautiful National Litter Index (NLI).

The NLI annually conducts litter audits in over 900 sites nationally and quotes the number of items against a base area of 1000 square metres. The data is then collated by State, material and site type. The NLI provides a reliable reference of the number of cigarette butts in various site types, which on a national average currently (2008/2009) stands at 30 items per 1000m2 and is overall the most frequently identified item in the litter stream by number.

Butt Free Australia has identified national hotspot sites or Contexts as:

transition points (notably public transport interchanges)
outside licensed venues (especially since legislative change)
and city centres.

See About Butt Littering for details on the size of the problem nationally.

State level

The Keep Australia Beautiful NLI provides an indication of cigarette butt litter at the state level and then by site type such as shopping centre, beach, car park and highway.

Other state-based reports that may provide data on cigarette butt litter are those from Environmental Protection Agencies, State environment/natural resource management departments or water utilities.

Local level

Extensive research in a local area is a resource-intensive exercise and is unlikely to be viable at the small-medium project level. However, supported by national and state trends, a reasonable local assessment can be made using easily accessible quantitative and qualitative information.

Quantitative

To provide quantitative information you will need to source numbers – records of butt litter that have been collected from, or represent the majority of, the area you’re addressing.

Cleaning contractors or waste managers may already collect data that could indicate where and when butt litter is found, which you may be able to gain access to through local Council. Or perhaps a government department, commercial water utility or other body conducts regular litter audits of the region.

If there is no data that covers a broad area available, you might also check Council reports – if you have access to such information – of litter complaints from the community. This information is only an indication of a litter problem – it may also be an indication of where the more concerned or vocal citizens are. Another limitation is that this kind of data – that has been passively collected, rather than actively - can't be relied on to compare one area against another.

Qualitative

An important source of qualitative information is people who manage or observe litter day to day.

Council street sweepers, professional cleaning contractors are valuable sources of information at the local level. They will provide first-hand trends of litter hotspots, day to day and season to season.

Local businesses will know identified areas in great detail and may even be able to indicate a target audience of a heavily littered area by their behaviour (office workers, pedestrians etc).

Identify the worst hotspots

Once you have collected quantitative and qualitative data as suggested above, it is time to observe behaviour in possible butt litter hotspots to identify the worst of the butt litter problem.

First-hand observation of littering in these areas will not only confirm that there is or isn't a particular litter problem but will also help assess in what situation littering is occurring (as outlined in the next Section – Context). The data collected here may also indicate who the majority of the litterers are, or your target audience.

Butt littering - Behavioural observations

This assessment exercise is an informal observation of littering to compare which are the worst of possible hotspot areas as identified in quantitative and qualitative information at the local level. It is NOT a source of information on its own.

Behavioural observations involve covertly watching smokers dispose of cigarettes: where they dispose of them, what activity they’re doing at the time and where the nearest infrastructure is placed.

The data gathered in this assessment, will help identify your target audience for the next step. The methodology and data sheet can be downloaded from the Tools list below.

Action – Assess

Prepare three short paragraphs to summarise butt littering in your region:
- National level
- State level
- Local level
Download the ‘Informal butt littering observations’ methodology and datasheet and conduct behavioural observations in possible identified hotspot(s).
Suggest which areas of your local region are the worst butt litter hotspots.
Provide a short summary of butt littering behaviour observed in local hotspots.