Ballina Shire to target cigarette butt littering
Smokers be warned — if you throw away your cigarette butts in Ballina Shire Council, you risk a hefty fine.
Later this month, officers from Ballina Council will participate in a national cigarette butt littering crackdown, issuing fines to those who thoughtlessly discard their butts in public areas.
“Cigarette butts are Australia’s number one litter item with more than seven billion cigarettes being discarded across the nation each year,” said Acting General Manager Paul Hickey.
Mr Hickey said that Ballina Council is one of many councils Australia-wide that will be participating in ‘Small Butt, Big Impact’– a National Day of Action on cigarette butt litter.
“Small Butt, Big Impact’ involves governments at all levels working together to raise public awareness of the serious environmental impact of cigarette butt litter. We want to alert potential litterers to the fact that littering is also against the law,” said Mr Hickey.
Most littered butts find their way into our stormwater systems and are then flushed into our rivers and oceans. Toxic chemicals — including cadmium, lead, arsenic, formaldehyde, mercury, benzene and hydrogen cyanide — leach into the water and harm our marine life.
“Cleaning up cigarette butt litter is a constant drain on Ballina Council’s resources. Smokers be warned — drop that butt and risk a fine of up to $200,” Mr Hickey said.
Ballina Council reminds the local community that it is not just one day a year that it fines butt litterers, “We target cigarette butt litter year round — we will continue to enforce laws against littering and issue penalties to offenders,” Mr Hickey said.
