Novartis, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies has begun distributing No BuTTs Personal Ashtrays to their employees to eliminate their corporate cigarette butt litter.

"Our facility has gone Smoke-Free and we were very concerned about the impact that our employees cigarette butt littering was having on our local environment and our corporate image.  Let's face it, cigarette butt littering is not a good look - especially when the litterer is representing or is associated with our company." said Ben Kaye-Smith, Corporate HSE Manager for Novartis Group in Australia and New Zealand. 

"As soon as we discovered No BuTT's Mini-Butts Personal Ashtrays we could see that they offered us a complete solution to staff cigarette butt littering - because our smoking employees can do the right thing with their butts whenever and wherever they smoke."

Novartis's slogan is 'Caring and Curing'.

"Obviously being a health based company, we wish that none of our people smoked - but we know that some of them do. Our facility is Smoke-Free and that means our smokers have to go somewhere else to smoke. Providing Personal Ashtrays to our employees means that the environment is protected and just as importantly so is our corporate image. After all, they're our smokers."

"Employee smoking can be a contentious issue, especially for health industry based companies but the reality is that many people smoke - and Novartis is simply behaving in an environmentally responsible manner by addressing this serious environmental issue." said Jack Jacobson, No BuTTs Managing Director. "This is even more important as their facility is Smoke-Free so their smokers are forced to go somewhere else to smoke."

"Because it's a sensitive issue, we do occasionally encounter a concern that by providing Personal Ashtrays
to their smokers, an organisation could be possibly seen
as in some way 'encouraging' smoking - but that argument completely misses the point - and that is that people are going to smoke with or without a Personal Ashtray.  For a whole lot of reasons it's obviously better 'with' - cause we all know what happens when it's 'without'."

"Personal Ashtrays eliminate cigarette butt litter anywhere a smoker goes. It's as simple as that."

"To suggest that distributing Personal Ashtrays could be akin to 'promoting' smoking is like saying that smoke detectors in rooms could promote the lighting of fires, or that airbags in cars could promote dangerous driving. It's
a totally misguided proposition."

"To put it another way, no-one ever looked at a Personal Ashtray for the first time, no matter how impressed they were with the concept, and decided to take up smoking..."

"In fact over half our corporate clients that provide Personal/Pocket Ashtrays to their smokers order them with our slogan 'Protect the environment - Better still, quit smoking' - or something similar, so there's no way they nor any other organisations that distribute Personal Ashtrays can ever be accused of 'encouraging' smoking. What they're actually doing is encouraging their smokers to quit - and reinforcing that message each and every time that smoker uses their pocket ashtray."

"By banning smoking at their premises, companies like Novartis are discouraging smoking by making it harder and less convenient for their employees to smoke - but they're just doing it in a way which doesn't turn the surrounding environment into a dumping ground for their smokers cigarette butt litter."

"Smoke-Free companies and organisations that ban smoking at their premises yet choose to ignore the issue of their own employees cigarette butt littering are environmentally irresponsible because they are simply making the issue of their own employees butt littering someone else's - ie society's problem."

"Their smokers are going to smoke - and they know it. It's just a question of where they go to smoke, and what they're going to do with their butts."

"Like an increasing number of organisations every week, Novartis is doing the right thing by the environment and their local community - and their public image by assisting their employees to responsibly dispose of their own butts where ever they go to smoke - and Novartis should be commended for doing so."

Over 5,000 companies and organisations around the planet are now providing No BuTTs Mini-Butts Personal Ashtrays to their staff, employees and contractors to eliminate their cigarette butt litter.  That's good for all and great for the environment.