By JOLENE OGLE
LOCALS frustrated with continually cleaning-up cigarette butts from Noosa Main Beach are calling on Noosa Council to provide better facilities so smokers can bin their butts.
Markus Hanley and Anne Oxley, who were both busy collecting cigarette butts from the garden beds next to the Noosa Main Beach lifeguard tower on Monday 14 September, said it was time for smokers to be more responsible when it came to disposing of their butts.
“It’s a shame because this is a lovely place for people to come and sit and enjoy the view of the beach,” Markus said.
The long-time local, who comes to Noosa Main Beach three times a week as part of his triathlon training, said he was sitting on the wall resting when he began to notice the number of cigarette butts in the garden bed.
“I don’t know what made me look, but I noticed they were everywhere,” he said.
“I want to know what the council can do about this. There needs to be more bins and smokers need to use them and not the garden bed.”
Anne said she cleans up the garden beds most mornings while her husband swims in the ocean.
“I do this most days,” she said. “I usually get a bag full of rubbish, including cigarette butts. I think there needs to be more signs to remind smokers to bin their butts.”
Current laws make it illegal for anyone to smoke between the flags on a patrolled beach, but Markus said the council needed to put facilities in place to make it easier to bin cigarette butts.
There is currently one rubbish bin located near the lifeguard tower, at the front of the Noosa Surf Club, with the closest cigarette disposal bin being on the other side of the road on the path next to the Police Beat.
Noosa Council were asked for comment but no reply had been received by time of going to press.
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