Cigarette Butts

From 1 July 2007, smoking in enclosed licensed premises will be banned throughout Victoria.

Under the Environment Protection Act 1970, discarding cigarette butts is a littering offence and fines may be issued.

Dropping a cigarette butt will receive a $110 fine, or $220 if the butt is still alight.

Butts and the Environment

Cigarette butts are already the most littered item in Victoria, responsible for 56% of our total litter problem with the statistics set to soar after 1 July 2007
According to Keep Australia Beautiful's recently released National Litter Index, cigarette butts are the number one most littered item in Australia making up 49% of the litter stream by number. Butt littering is a nationwide problem with an estimated seven billion butts entering the environment every year
24 billion filtered cigarettes are sold in Australia every year and it is estimated that approximately 7 billion of these are littered
6 out of 10 Australian smokers in outdoor sittings litter their butts
Cigarette butts have consistently made the top ten of items picked up in the Clean Up Australia Day rubbish report since it started in 1990
Cigarette butt litter comprised 58% of all items littered in public places around Australia
The Department of Sustainability Victoria estimate that local government spend approximately $58 million each year cleaning up litter
95% of litter on beaches comes from suburban streets through the stormwater system. 350,000 butts enter Port Phillip Bay each year
Cigarette Butts can take up to 12 years to decompose

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