Mayors are being challenged in competition for the biggest haul of butts     A Beamsville-based group of volunteers united by their goal to decrease Niagara’s environmental footprint is asking for the public’s help.   The Eco-Defenders are hosting Lincoln’s annual Butt Blitz on Saturday, April 27, where participants will spend roughly four hours picking up cigarette butts.   Last year’s blitz collected over 17,000 butts from Grimsby and Lincoln alone, and over 239,000 from across Canada.   New this year, the group is unveiling the Mayors’ Biggest Butts Competition, where the mayor of the municipality with the most butts collected will win a trophy.   “It is our intention that this could become an annual competition and the trophy would get passed around to the winners,” co-ordinator Jane Gadsby said in her letter to the mayors.   Every littered butt retrieved will be sent to TerraCycle, where it will be turned into plastic and used to make products like shipping pallets. Tobacco will also be separated and sent out to be composted.   Anybody wishing to support the effort can do so by notifying the group in advance of especially littered areas, can volunteer to join the cleanup or can donate prizes for volunteers of all ages.   Lincoln Butt Blitz volunteers will meet at the Fleming Centre, in Beamsville, at 10 a.m. and will clean until roughly 2 p.m. For more information, visit the groups Facebook page.