In the mean time they have poisoned the waterways with up to 165 chemicals, lodged in the stomachs of marine wildlife and leaked toxic emissions such as nicotene and pyrene into the environment.

One butt can contaminate eight litres of water - and it is our drinking water where the majority of these butts end up.

Snowy River Shire Council has joined for the second year with thirteen other regional councils to be part of the South East Resource Regional Organisations of Councils to meet this problem head on.

The Bin your Butts - or Don’t be a tosser - campaign was launched on Monday in Jindabyne.

Stickers, coasters, posters, banners and personal ash trays will be distributed

to licensed venues in Jindabyne over the next few weeks. The campaign, funded by the NSW government Department of Climate Change and Water’ aims to keep the 25 billion filtered cigarettes sold in Australia each year in landfill tips - not in waterways.