New qualitative research commissioned by Butt Free Australia has given greater insight into the attitudes and perceptions of cigarette butt litterers using a moderated on-line blog over a five-day period.

An alternative to the traditional focus group approach, blogging produced extended, in-depth and candid conversation from approximately 80 participants. Comments were insightful, considered and often challenging in gaining greater understanding of the thinking of butt litterers - segmented into Apologists, Rationalists and Defensives by preliminary research.

Results of the qualitative research, to be paired with quantitative research currently under analysis, will be released in December 2010 and help refine the approach to the 'Not a Good Look' message into 2011.

Blog: 5 Nov 2010

Butt Free Australia is partnering with a number of large festivals coming into the summer season.

The Butt FREE Events approach highlights the need for accessible and highly visible cigarette butts bins, and has been based on experience with festivals such as Woodford Folk Festival, Tamworth Country Music Festival and Splendour in the Grass.

First on the calendar is the Island Vibe, 29 – 31 October held on Stradbroke Island in Moreton Bay, just south of Brisbane. From a humble beginning in 2006 (Butt Free Australia’s Project Manager was there!), when it was known as Island Time, it’s now grown into an east coast reggae, roots, dub and soul favourite.

Island Vibe are talking face-to-face to festival goers, educating them about the need to prevent butt littering and the potential impacts on nearby pristine beaches. They’ll be delivering the 'Not a Good Look' message through posters, pledges and free personal ashtrays.

Blog: 21 Oct 2010

Consumer advocacy group CHOICE recently released findings of a survey investigating ‘What annoys Australians?’

Over 1000 CHOICE members were asked to rank 32 experiences on an annoyance scale from 0 (not annoying at all) to 10 (tremendously annoying). The top sixteen are shown in the image above.

‘Hidden fees and costs’ rated number one on the ‘Gripe-o-meter’, with ‘No refund/replacement for faulty products’ in second place and ‘Being on hold’, in third.

‘Cigarette butts littering public areas’ came in at number 12, above unreliable internet, noisy neighbours, long queues and traffic jams.

Other gripes commented on included slow drivers, road hogging and throwing cigarette butts out of car windows.

Have you seen the new EPA Victoria campaign for reporting litter from a car?

Blog: 8 Oct 2010

Cigarette butts remain just under half of all items found in the litter stream according to the 2009-10 National Litter Index just released by Keep Australia Beautiful National.

Butts increased slightly in 2009/10 to 32 items per 1000m2, (up from 30 in 2008/09 and returning to their 2007/08 level of 32) while the overall number of littered items increased marginally to 66 (up from 63 items in 2008/09).

Overall the tread for cigarettes is downward though, from a starting point of 35 butts in 2006/07 and they still only comprise a very small proporton of the overall litter volume (0.004 litres per 1000m2 in 2009/10).

See Butt Free Australia's media release to see how your state/territory compared against the national average.

A copy of the 2009/10 National Litter Index is available by visiting www.kab.org.au

Blog: 23 Sept 2010

Launched 15 August, the Airlie Beach based ‘No butts on our Beach’ campaign is raising awareness about impacts of butts and litter on the marine environment.

Driven by local not-for-profit group Eco Barge Services, the campaign is rallying the community, in particular tourism operators and Council, to clean up local beaches, promote awareness of litter impacts, install butts bins and invest in prevention and marine debris clean-up projects.

They’re also making good use of Butt Free Australia resources including the ‘Not a Good Look’ website to promote the availability of personal ashtrays handy for use throughout the gateway to the beautiful Whitsunday Islands (QLD).

Check out the 'No butts on our Beach' website or their recent media stories:

• 7000 butts gone from beach
• Not butts - time to clean up beach

Blog: 20 Aug 2010