A charity aiming to eliminate litter is providing a free and simple solution to smokers at this year’s Boomtown festival.
UK wide charity Keep Britain Tidy (KBT) are handing out free “butt boxes” at Boomtown to smokers, to prevent the littering of cigarettes.
Each box works as a portable ash tray, where you can put out a cigarette and then store five to seven cigarettes ready to empty when a bin is available. Each butt box is smell proof, fire proof, and made of 100 per cent recyclable materials.
At Boomtown, a crew are handing out the boxes, but only approaching people who are smoking during the festival, encouraging them to use the trays instead of littering. They can be found around the festival, particularly near cigarette sellers, and can be recognised by their brand-representing duck t-shirt.
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Programme director John Egan said: “There’s a crew of around 30 distributors here giving out up to 5000 ash trays. We’re trying to encourage people to use them and a number of our special bins around the site.
“We’re hoping the combination of those things will help people realise that butts are litter. Particularly in the moment, in a festival, people might have had a drink, you’re dancing in a big crowd – there’s not always bins around. We’re trying to eliminate those reasons for littering.
Across the UK’s largest 30 festivals this summer, it is estimated that 5.5 million cigarettes will be littered. Cigarettes are not bio-degradable, and it can take 14 years for them to break apart.
He added: “We’re not trying to preach smoking. The responsibility of smokers is to think about the environment, there’s a lot of wildlife here and it’s important that protected.”
“It’s not an overnight thing, it’s a start. We have been trying to work with smokers rather than demeaning them. We’re delighted to work with Boomtown.”
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Across Boomtown, bins with KBT’s duck logo, which also features on the butt boxes, are situated for the disposal of cigarettes.
Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive Allison Ogden-Newton OBE said: “Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the UK and the consequences for our environment are far more significant than many realise.
"This summer, 5.5 million butts are expected to be dropped during the UK’s festival season - creating an impossible task for volunteers and festival clear-up crews.
"We need smokers’ attitudes to cigarette litter to change so that it is no longer viewed as "acceptable". Instead it should be seen as millions of pieces of single-use plastic polluting the environment and threatening wildlife. We want smokers to order a Butt Box and take responsibility for disposing of their rubbish properly."
Butt boxes can also be ordered online for free (plus postage) here: keepbritaintidy.pbfulfilment.com/
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