Three finalists have been announced as part of this year's Keep Victoria Beautiful Tidy Towns awards, including Warrnambool's own grassroots campaign which has taken the fight against single-use cotton buds nationally.
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'Better Buds' is in the running for the 'litter' category, having played a key role in state and council efforts to reduce single-use plastics and ocean pollution.
Founder Colleen Hughson said when the group was established in 2017, "nobody was talking about cotton buds".
"When we started, no one was talking about them - not even your well-known activists that work in the plastic space as far as getting bans into place," she said.
"So we really had to start ground zero in terms of raising awareness and getting people onboard."
She said the recent nomination would help raise the issue of cotton bud pollution in marine environments, an issue many in the community were still unaware of.
"Our campaign started off in Warrnambool with community members, so any chance we get to promote the campaign further is a great thing and have those conversations with people who don't know about cotton buds on the beach," she said.
"For so many people cotton buds are not associated with marine litter. It's still a litter item that there's still not that much awareness around so this will just raise the profile of cotton buds so more people are thinking about it and gathering support."
In 2019, Warrnambool City Council pledged to support the group's goal of becoming the first city in Australia to phase out plastic-stemmed cotton buds.
"We wanted Warrnambool to be the first city in Australia to ban plastic-stemmed cotton buds because you hear of towns banning plastic bags all the time and we thought why not, lets have that as our goal," she said.
"So back in November of 2009 we presented the council with that idea and they committed to it. They made sure there were no plastic-stemmed cotton buds in any of the council-run facilities like the childcare centres beginning in 2020."
The same year, the majority of local beauty salons also pledged to stop using them.
"One of the biggest users of cotton buds in Warrnambool were the beauticians who were buying them from local supermarkets, so we ran one of our campaigns where we made a brochure and lobbied the sources. We also gave out certificates to businesses that committed to changing over."
This year, Better Buds helped to convince the state government to commit to banning the sale of plastic cotton buds by 2023.
Over the past 12 months, plastic stems from cotton buds littered on Shelly Beach have also reduced from an average of 800 a month to just 20.
Jessica Greenan
Journalist at The Warrnambool Standard covering both Moyne Shire and Corangamite Shire Council. Sometimes court. Special interest in all things environment.
Journalist at The Warrnambool Standard covering both Moyne Shire and Corangamite Shire Council. Sometimes court. Special interest in all things environment.
