'No ifs or butts, just bin it' smokers are told

AN ECO-conscious girl is doing her bit to protect the oceans after she teamed up with the organisers of the Loopallu Festival to reduce the number of discarded cigarette butts ending up in the sea.

Ullapool Primary pupil Megan Ross (9) created posters with the help of the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Living Seas Officer Noel Hawkins, also based in the village, after the youngster studied the impact the effect the dog ends have on the environment and the seas.

"Worldwide, about 4.5 trillion cigarettes are littered each year and make up more than one-third – nearly 38 percent – of all collected litter," said Mr Hawkins.

"Cigarette butts leach toxic chemicals such as arsenic – used to kill rats – and can contaminate water.

"The toxic exposure can poison fish, as well as animals who eat cigarette butts, and although they look like cotton, 98 per cent of cigarette filters are made of plastic fibres and can take many years to break down – if they do at all."

The Loopallu Festival is one of the highlights of the Ullapool calendar, and Megan teamed up with those behind the popular event in a bid to stop more cigarette ends landing on her much loved beach.

With the help of her class mates at Ullapool Primary, she made some posters and with the help of Mr Hawkins, they approached the festival organisers who invited her down to meet Robert Hicks, who puts on the annual weekend of music.

Together they put the buckets around the festival space with the slogan ‘Don’t be a pain in the butt!’ on them – politely asking people to please put their butts in the buckets. The pupils at Ullapool Primary are no strangers to tackling environmental issues.

Last Christmas the village was declared plastic straw free after the children got the local bars and businesses to swap their plastic straws for more environmentally friendly options.

In recent weeks some of the children also attended Chris Packham’s Public Walk for Wildlife in London where they met the well known TV presenter and conservationist himself, as well as a number of other famous environmental activists, exchanging information on a campaign against proposed kelp dredging currently being considered by the Scottish Government.

One of the pupils even went so far as to lose his role as Scotland’s junior shark ambassador after telling Bear Grylls that plans to use sharks in captivity for diving experiences was wrong.

The organisation behind his role as ambassador felt this was too negative – however a petition asking Bear Grylls to reconsider his plan has gathered almost 50,000 signatures.