A CAMPAIGN to keep plastic off the beach and out of the sea has seen councillors get together to discourage people from dropping cigarette butts.

Colin Letchford, chairman of the Friends of Concord Beach, revealed the group have fashioned some butt collectors from old notice board posts to combat the littering.

He said: “We are trying to make smokers aware that filters in cigarette butts are made from plastic.

“They are the fourth greatest contaminate in the world’s oceans because so many are discarded.

“A butt dropped in the street gets washed into the surface drains system and finally ends up in the sea. Just walk down any street and count how many butts are in the gutter.

“If you polled the fish in the sea I am sure they all want to quit smoking.”

Castle Point councillors are backing the campaign and are urging smokers to think about where they drop their butts.

The homemade butt collectors are fashioned in the shape of a cigarette with a small hole at the top.