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Context

context

Butt littering behaviour (where, when and how people litter) and how to manage it, will differ depending on what situation or 'context' it is happening.

Once the worst butt littering hotspots have been identified through assessment of problem areas, you will be able to determine if there is a trend in the Context in which the littering is occurring and identify a target audience.

For example are the worst of the littered areas outside cafes or businesses? Is there a particular problem surrounding bus stops or train stations?

We can hear you saying 'it's everywhere!' We all face that frustration unfortunately. However a focus on Context will enable you to concentrate on the biggest target, and by applying an effective approach, give you a bigger result. Each of the Solutions to follow in the Toolkit will need a slightly different approach depending on the project Context.

This cannot be emphasised enough. If your project doesn't have a focus on Context, it will have unclear messages, partnerships, measurement and results.

Butt Free Australia has identified a number of Contexts known to be butt littering hotspots and, through project experience, developed guides to designing a project to best address them. These guides can be found in the Tools list at the end of this section.

Target audience

Knowing 'who' is littering in butt littering hotspots will enable you to determine how to best engage, educate and provide infrastructure to encourage behaviour change.

Take a close look at your completed 'Informal butt littering observation' datasheet and use the following questions to determine your target audience and their littering behaviour.

Within your hotspot(s):

What other activity were people involved in?
This will be the greatest indicators of Context. Were the majority of litterers standing and littering perhaps coming out from work to smoke, or were they walking along the street, entering a building or waiting for public transport? Activity will also influence both the style of education required but also the disposal behaviours of smokers.
How were people littering?
The action of littering is as varied as the people doing it, but may be consistent with the area, activity of the litterer or a lack or inadequacy of infrastructure.
When was littering worst?
Is there a time of the day or day of the week, season or event when the littering is at its worst? This will help identify your audience.
Where did people tend to smoke and is it permitted?
This will influence the choice of infrastructure and where it is best placed.

Were you able to identify a particular group of people littering in association with their activity, how they were littering or where they were smoking?

Demographics

In order to better understand your target audience, some research on its demographics can be useful. The age, gender, cultural and socio-economic differences of your audience will help focus development of all aspects of your campaign. This will include the language used in promotional materials, cultural references and the best locations to engage them.

Various organisations may already have such information on hand, saving you the need to research it independently. Local government will have information on residents, tourism organisations may have data on various types of tourists in your region and local business associations may have data on other types of visitors, for example.

Context approaches

Delivering a project within a defined context will mean quite different applications of and emphasis on ButtFREE Solutions. For example, compare the approaches required for a city or a beach Context:

	City Context	Beach Context
Activity	Visiting/living/working/shopping	Relaxing, strolling, walking dog
Audience	Very broad	Local, occasional visitors, dog walkers
Education	Easy to reach a large audience although time will be short with some audiences	Plenty of time to engage people although only high numbers over summer and need to cover a large area
Awareness	High profile entertainment, stunt or personality required	Signage recommended
Infrastructure	Ongoing additions to permanent infrastructure	Personal ashtrays and infrastructure in nearby parks or pathways
Enforcement	Council supports and will conduct	Difficult to observe and tourists transient, not easy to ensure they’ve been exposed to education or awareness before enforcing litter law

Why people litter cigarette butts

'Why' people litter cigarette butts is a combination of elements including infrastructure, but also the attitudes, knowledge and perceptions of litterers.

Understanding of butt litterers in Australia has been drawn from recent Butt Free Australia research and included within the ButtFREE Solutions.

While we don't discourage local research into the attitudes, knowledge and perceptions of butt litterers, we are confident that the main issues have been well-researched at a national scale with relevance at a local level. We would therefore recommend that project resources are better spent on addressing the ButtFREE Solutions.

Action – Context

Review results of your Assessment, and decide on the most prevalent Context within identified hotspots
Download the ButtFREE Context guide that best describes your chosen Context from the list below
Read a case study of a project already run in a similar context – Case Studies
Use the Context guide to tailor your plan in the next steps of the Toolkit.