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CIGARETTE BUTTS MAKE up more than half of the litter on the streets of the capital – so Dublin City Council has launched a new campaign to get people to use ashtrays.
The campaign, Bin the Butt!, was inspired by the National Litter Pollution Monitoring System (NLPMS) for Dublin City Council, which showed that cigarette litter is the main source of litter in Dublin City, and cigarette butts account for 60% of all street litter in Dublin City.
The litter report highlighted that cigarette waste – which includes butts, packets, and matches, now accounts for over half of all Dublin street litter, followed by food related litter (19%) and packaging items (9%).
Chewing gum was found to be the main food related litter issue in Dublin City.
The NLPMS litter report also revealed that the main causes of litter pollution in Dublin City are passing pedestrians (61%), passing motorists (15%), and retail outlets (7%).
Simon Brock, Waste Management Services Officer, Dublin City Council, TheJournal.ie that: “When we go out to quantify the litter what is apparent is there is a multiple of cigarette butts in compared to other litter. Each one of them represents an incident of littering.”
He said that the aim of the campaign is to try and make people think about what they’re doing. “There’s a perception maybe that smokers don’t see the cigarette butt as litter and trying to make that connection between unconscious or instinctive activity and the alternative of putting the butt into a cigarette ashtray.”
He said that there are over 3,000 bins in Dublin city, and that many licensed premises also have the ashtrays. “Our experience would be that all of our cigarette ashtrays in our bins are well used,” said Brock – but people are still dropping the butts on the ground.
He said the bins with ashtrays are located in strategic points in the city where people gather. “We’re trying to use the infrastructure that is already there,” rather than introduce new ashtrays, said Brock.
The campaign wants people to think: “You wouldn’t throw a coffee cup, you wouldn’t throw a sweet wrapper on the ground – think of your cigarette that way. See it for what it is,” said Brock.
Cigarette butts are not biodegradable. “They are a form of plastic, they contain a lot of chemicals and toxins that are created in the process of smoking,” said Brock. He said that the butts can make their way into the water course or be eaten by animals. It takes 12 years for a cigarette butt to break down.
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There’s not a smoker in the land that isn’t a litter bug.
I see it on a regular basis while stuck in traffic. Thank god for dash cams. Its our country for god sake have some pride in it!
Im a smoker and always extinguish my cigarette and bin it. As with any rubbish .. Tho I think some streets in Dublin City need extra bins as they can be few and far between.
@The Viking: can’t possibly have more bins, people would just put rubbish in them. And everyone knows they should carry it home and pay for it’s diaposal
@The Viking: in Japan there are no public bins and it is spotless.
its our attitude to rubbish is “a sure its only a little butt”. we need to fine litterbugs
@The Viking: do you always use an ash tray or just tap it to the wind for someone else to breathe in? Smoking is the dirtiest habit (not the worst) on the planet.
Most smokers, not all, but most have no respect for their surroundings in that they tap ash all over, throw butts where they like even when there’s a bin and crowd doorways where non smokers have to try get by them ending up smelling of smokes and breathing that crap in. Smoking areas should be banned from businesses unless its at a secondary entrance. Dublin City is the worst, people living in apartments throwing butts from windows and balcony’s. The whole city is a disgrace thanks to its own residents, what a shame.
I gave up smoking 6 yrs ago but when I smoked I used to always flick my butts away, I never gave it a thought, it’s only now when someone is smoking out my back garden and they put their butts in my plant pots that I realise how they accumulate.
Any heavy smoker that says they never flick butts away…. I think they might not be as honest as I.
@Tnka Tanzy: Trillions of plastic tipped cigarette butts at dropped around the world every year that leech toxic chemicals into the environment that bioaccumulate in different plants and animals. Ever see a bottle used as an ashtray at the end of a party? That gives you an idea of water quality which is increasing in nicotine concentration particularly around densely populated areas. Terrible behavior and all too common
@OpenLitterMap: that water is great for killing aphids and white fly in gardens just use it in a spray bottle. Thats your gardening tip for today.
Drives me bananas. What do smokers think happen to them?
@Fernhill House Hotel: it’s incredibly selfish. Why can’t they put them in their pockets? My OH smokes on and off, it’s so offensive in every way. They seems to not care at all about the negative impact they have on everyone around them. I try to be kind because I’ve never had an addiction, but that’s because I was never stupid enough to take it up.
@Smelly Chemist: get another OH !
If they don’t want the litter stop selling the smokes simple…….oh wait the tax revenue!
Fast food packaging and coffee cups should have unique references on them.
People litter them the most outside of cigarette butts.
Out the car window, or pop it under the car when parked.
Then coffee cups and smoothies are left on shop shelves in the city, disgusting and should be traceable with substantial fines applied.
Littering is a huge problem in Ireland. I was involved in Tidy Towns for years and if I had a euro for every piece of litter thrown mostly out of cars I would be a rich woman. To highlight people’s attitude to Litter some people complained that the Fas Workers were not keeping the village and approaching roads litter free as that is what they were there for!!!. No criticism of the people who were doing the littering.
It’s time there was zero tolerance for litterbugs. Bring home your own stuff and put it in your bin.
I also found that the more bins we supplied the more they were abused. Some people were brazen enough to put their household waste in them.
Map and open data on litter anywhere @ OpenLitterMap.com – Check out this incredible stretch of free and open data on the pollution being caused by the products of a handful of global corporations – https://openlittermap.com/maps/The%20Netherlands/Zuid-Holland/Wassenaar/map
@OpenLitterMap: The Netherlands isn’t perfect? Noooooo!
They seem to have enough variety of dogshit to write a book
@Tom: there is some amount of crap alright. Turn on the brands category also, some incredible stretch of open data that anyone can download and use for free. There is also a lot of data in Ireland – https://openlittermap.com/maps/Ireland/County%20Dublin/Dublin%2024/map – it’s like Pokémon Go for Tidy Towns!
@Tom: how do you write a book using dog shit exactly? Confused.
I quit smoking over 3 years ago by vaping. Not only massive health dividends but it’s also far better for the environment. No smoke, butts, disposable lighters or matches. The HSE need to get behind vaping to encourage smokers to quit and create health awareness campaigns such as the current #VApril campaign in the UK.
The remainder of litter has to be dog mess!
You know what this calls for…. a levy. Seems to be the go-to reaction for every other issue that comes up.
There should be a tax on cigarettes and that will pay for cleaning up the butts.
@tom McCormack: sure and tax on alcohol cleaning up the vomit around the pubs and clubs in the city every morning!
@tom McCormack: there is.
I await the slating but, 830,000 smokers in Ireland approximately. If they were to buy a pack of 20 a day, put €2.50 litter tariff on a pack. That’s over 2 million euro a day that could go into resolving our health service, housing crisis and homelessness then possibly and hopefully cut down massively on the amount of people smoking. I know it’ll blow up black market sales but that’s customs job.
Make cigarette pack at least 20euros. Every 2 euros from the pack will be given to waste management companies. If people don’t clean up they will pay for it.
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