Airlie Beach Big Cigarette Butt Hunt

Contact name: Shannon Mead

Contact phone number: 0411868275

Contact email address: contact@nomorebutts.org

After two successful Big Cigarette Butt Hunts in Cairns to kick-off the Clean Up Cairns month, thanks to funding from Queensland Gives, No More Butts is now expanding the events to four new locations, including Airlie Beach. At the first event in 2022, more than a dozen volunteers picked up 4,500 butts in just under an hour. In 2023, 20 volunteers joined forces to comb the streets of Cairns for cigarette butts. After one hour, volunteers from several different organisations and businesses had collected a total of 10,350 butts. The success of this event saw two further events held in December 2023 in partnership with the Sea Shepherd Marine Debris Campaign, Rye, Victoria and Surfers Paradise played host to the groups, who picked up more than 14,000 butts. Executive Director of No More Butts, Mr. Shannon Mead, noted that partnering with councils, businesses, local rangers and other like-minded groups is having a great impact. Although our ultimate goal is to ban plastic cigarette filters, for now, we need to spend a lot of effort on education and prevention, as well as picking up these toxic nasty plastic parcels. Jumping into the “butt mobile” in April, Shannon will travel from Innisfail to Mackay to participate in the four events across two weekends. Identifying hot spots, based on previous visits and community feedback, Shannon is optimistic that others may join him in the hunt for as many butts as possible. On Saturday 13th April, Airlie Beach Foreshore will be the meeting spot. Arrive for registration at 8:15am. The event will finish by 10am. Although some essentials will be on hand, participants are encouraged to bring their own gloves, sunccream, a hat and a water bottle. Interested community members can learn more at https://bit.ly/nqldbh24.