Turn tiny tins into butt bins at Cairns Libraries
TINY TINS
Empty mint tins make perfect little butt bins to ‘Ditch the Flick’. Through the ReefClean project, Tangaroa Blue and Cairns Regional Council have set up collection points at four Cairns Libraries branches for residents to drop off their empty mint tins.
Tangaroa Blue, a not-for-profit organisation with a focus on removing and preventing marine debris, will collect then rebrand the tins as part of their ‘Ditch the Flick’ campaign to encourage smokers to carry butt bins with them to help reduce litter.
Cairns Mayor Bob Manning said cigarette butts took a long time to break down and contained plastic and harmful chemicals.
“Discarded cigarette butts are an ongoing problem in the city and an even bigger problem for the marine environment when they wash out to the ocean through drains,” Cr Manning said.
“We held a clean-up in the city recently for Clean Up Cairns and volunteers collected around 4500 cigarette butts in under one hour in just three city streets.
“We can do so much better to protect our environment and preserve the amenity in our city.
“It is not a big ask to bin butts instead of flicking them.”
Cr Manning said re-using the tins was the best way to keep them out of landfill in Cairns because small items cannot be recycled through Council’s facilities.
Tangaroa Blue senior project coordinator, Hannah Kennedy, said more than 1500 ‘Ditch the Flick’ butt bins had already been repurposed and distributed in Far North Queensland to people in urban litter hotspots.
Residents can drop off their mint tins at any of these four Cairns Libraries branches: City, Earlville, Manunda and Stratford Libraries, alongside the existing battery drop-off points.
If you’d like a stickered butt bin, please contact [email protected]
Thank you!
Newsport thanks its advertising partners for their support in the delivery of daily community news to the Douglas Shire. Public interest journalism is a fundamental part of every community.
Got a news tip? Let us know! Send your news tips or submit a letter to the editor here.
* Comments are the opinions of readers and do not represent the views of Newsport, its staff or affiliates. Reader comments on Newsport are moderated before publication to promote valuable, civil, and healthy community debate. Visit our comment guidelines if your comment has not been approved for publication.