World First: Cigarettes from Cairns street used to clean waterways
A clean-up effort in Cairns has collected thousands of cigarette butts which will be used to clean waterways and remove pollution from the air. See how.
Cairns
Don't miss out on the headlines from Cairns. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Discarded cigarette butts collected from Cairns streets will be used to purify waterways and pull carbon from the air in a world first for science.
The second annual Big Butt Hunt went ahead on Thursday morning in Cairns City hosted by Cairns Regional Council in partnership with the Cairns-based environmental group No More Butts.
A group of 20 volunteers from four teams of local environmental groups, AFL Cairns, council and Yidinji peoples collected a combined total of 10,350 butts from the city’s streets in just 90 minutes, more than doubling their takeaway from last year.
No More Butts executive director Shannon Mead said the collected butts would be sent to James Cook University in Townsville where they would be turned into biochar which can be used to purify water, soil and air through carbon sequestration.
“So the ultimate goal for the cigarette butts that we’ve recovered is to actually turn them into a source that can be used for water purification, soil remediation and fertilisation, or even used in applications such as construction and to sequester carbon.”
Division 5 Councillor Amy Eden joined the clean up and said she was elated the council team cleared just shy of 4000 butts from the streets but saw a need for better communication between council and residents.
“While it’s great because they’re not going into our waterways and out to the Reef, it’s also really disheartening,” she said.
“The messaging, maybe it’s not working, maybe we need to have more butt bins around, I’m not sure.”
Yidinji nation volunteer Nevin Reys said he and his team felt keeping country clean was vital to giving back to the land and to each other.
“We all live in this country, this is all of our homes and everybody likes a clean home,” he said.
“So if we all come together and clean our home and respect one another, we’re gonna have love and we’re gonna have peace.”
The event was the first of a month long council campaign to clean up Cairns with new clean-up events across the region every weekend in September.
Residents can find all details on the council website and are asked to come to clean up events wearing enclosed shoes and sun smart clothing.
More Coverage
Originally published as World First: Cigarettes from Cairns street used to clean waterways
Police station sale sparks discussion over Gordonvale’s future
Claims a historic building was sold from under the noses of a Far North community group have been rebuffed by Labor, with calls to rejuvenate a beloved town square emerging as a key election issue.
‘Ridiculous thing’: LNP candidate dodges abortion, VAD questions
Far North voters are more concerned with crime, cost of living and housing than changes to abortion and voluntary assisted dying laws, the LNP’s candidate for Barron River Bree James says.