Put a stop to cigarette butts in Lake Geneva!

CIPEL and two NGOs set up a prevention campaign on the beaches of twenty-one communes on the shores of Lake Geneva. The aim of the campaign launched by CIPEL and Summit Foundation, in close collaboration with ASL, is to make bathers aware of the environmental impact of cigarette butts, the waste most often found on the shores of Lake Geneva.

Summertime use of Lake Geneva's beaches puts great pressure on the lake and its shores. CIPEL has launched an awareness campaign against the littering of cigarette butts on the beaches, shores and riprap along the shores of Lake Geneva, to prevent the abandonment of the waste most often found during collection operations.

This campaign marks a first, as it is built in close collaboration between a government body and two environmental NGOs active in the region: the International Commission for the Protection of the Waters of Lake Geneva, Summit Foundation and the Association pour la Sauvegarde du Léman. "We're delighted to see our "comic bubbles" campaign once again used on the plains to preserve the lake," says Olivier Kressmann, Director of the Summit Foundation. He adds: "Collaborating with two NGOs allows us to join forces and increase the scope of our actions.

From this summer onwards, the three organizations will be providing lakeside communities with billboards to raise awareness of the impact of cigarette butts, thanks to funding from CIPEL. ASL is supporting the campaign through its various communication channels, giving the project a local foothold. The campaign's messages focus as much on the impact of cigarette butts on wildlife as on water pollution, and on the way they are transported by rain into the environment.

Twenty-two communes in Switzerland and France have responded positively to this initiative and are taking part in the campaign, which kicks off this summer and will run for the next five years. "We're extremely pleased with the success of the initiative with the communes. While we were expecting around ten for the first year of the project, twice as many have already shown an interest," comments Audrey Klein, CIPEL General Secretary.

The campaign can now be discovered on the shores of Lake Geneva.