Cigarette butts...really?

[andrewg]

Ok smokers....let me start off that saying I have NOTHING against smoking. As a matter of fact I think smokers are unfairly targeted. If you want to smoke...no problem.

BUT......is it really necessary to throw the used butts out onto the street? Granted, you may not have an ashtray these days but PLEASE bring a container or something.
I walk often in my neighborhood as well as anyplace I travel. I enjoy walks...especially so with my new dog. He's a pup. As a pup, he's interested in what's on the ground in front of him. Do you know what he tries to eat on every walk? Cigarette butts! Why, you might ask? Because you can't go twenty feet without seeing one carelessly littered onto the sidewalk. What is it with you some of you smokers? You folks are always being targeted and treated in a negative way....and I'm sure you are tired of it. But how does it help your cause that you think it perfectly fine to throw a butt on the ground or out a car window? I really don't get it. Your old butts share the same space as discarded pop bottles and dirty meth foils.

So PLEASE smokers...if you want respect...stop littering.

 

[hattaresguy]

That drives me up the wall. When I smoke a cigar I don't throw the end down on the ground I put it out and throw it away.

People are just slobs.

 

[sleddriver]

+1

 

[Tdbo]

Agreed.

 

[DBMaster]

http://www.cigarettelitter.org/

 

[Hokiefyd]

North Carolina DOT has a "report a litterbug" website and, if they do what they say they do, a litterbug will receive a postcard in the mail reminding them that the road shoulders are not their personal trash cans.

http://www.ncdot.gov/doh/operations/dp_chief_eng/roadside/beautification/litterbug/salform.html

I report someone every time I see them do it. If it shames even 10% of the folks into changing their behavior, then I feel that it's worth my time.

 

[Al]

Smoking is very addictive so I don't want anyone to take it the wrong way.

Smokers are statistically less educated or younger and clueless. Why would you expect them to be environmentally friendly folks?

 

[BRZED]

Poor manners due to up-bringing. Just look at chewing gum litttered American sidewalks. Very telling.

 

[Joel_MD]

Yeah, throwing butts out the window bothers me too. If a guy is not disgusted by smoking in his car, what is so objectionable about leaving butts in the ashtray until they can be disposed of properly?

In Maryland we have pretty strict anti-littering laws. Tossing a butt out the window can get you pulled over, and the officer has a choice of issuing a traffic citation or even arresting you for a misdemeanor. I know someone who was driving in a residential area and got pulled over by a cop for tossing a butt out the window, which gave the cop an opportunity to interact with him and determine that he was likely intoxicated. He ended up getting arrested for DUI.

 

[morepwr]

I agree on the butts all over the ground. I don't have a problem with smokers but it would be nice if they didn't view earth as their personal ashtray.

 

[cat843]

Originally Posted By: andrewg
Ok smokers....let me start off that saying I have NOTHING against smoking. As a matter of fact I think smokers are unfairly targeted. If you want to smoke...no problem.

BUT......is it really necessary to throw the used butts out onto the street? Granted, you may not have an ashtray these days but PLEASE bring a container or something.
I walk often in my neighborhood as well as anyplace I travel. I enjoy walks...especially so with my new dog. He's a pup. As a pup, he's interested in what's on the ground in front of him. Do you know what he tries to eat on every walk? Cigarette butts! Why, you might ask? Because you can't go twenty feet without seeing one carelessly littered onto the sidewalk. What is it with you some of you smokers? You folks are always being targeted and treated in a negative way....and I'm sure you are tired of it. But how does it help your cause that you think it perfectly fine to throw a butt on the ground or out a car window? I really don't get it. Your old butts share the same space as discarded pop bottles and dirty meth foils.

So PLEASE smokers...if you want respect...stop littering.


I think smokers cost the rest of us huge sums of money in health care costs for treatment of a wide variety of diseases related to smoking.

 

[andrewg]

Originally Posted By: morepwr
I agree on the butts all over the ground. I don't have a problem with smokers but it would be nice if they didn't view earth as their personal ashtray.


Yep...that's exactly how I feel. Smokers are persecuted unfairly in my opinion. They can't even smoke within 20 feet of a bar where I live. Even some parks have banned smoking.
But if they want to be accepted and looked upon as not bothering anyone...then why the careless attitude with cigarette butts? It's disgusting and without regard for others. No way they are going to earn any respect from non smokers that way.

 

[Recalculating]

I walk away from people who chew tobacco and spit in common containers and leave them for other people to pick up such as clear plastic water bottles and the like. They may have something to say to contribute to humanity but I do not want to hear it.

Which reminds me of athletes like World Series baseball players using that [censored] and spitting on the next guy's leg like a dog marks a fire hydrant. Disgusting.

Am waiting for one of these sunflower cud eaters to choke running the bases and inhaling the stuff. Eating while working brought to another level. Good thing televised baseball is like watching paint dry. So many other options like reading BITOG postings.

 

[andrewg]

Originally Posted By: cat843
Originally Posted By: andrewg
Ok smokers....let me start off that saying I have NOTHING against smoking. As a matter of fact I think smokers are unfairly targeted. If you want to smoke...no problem.

BUT......is it really necessary to throw the used butts out onto the street? Granted, you may not have an ashtray these days but PLEASE bring a container or something.
I walk often in my neighborhood as well as anyplace I travel. I enjoy walks...especially so with my new dog. He's a pup. As a pup, he's interested in what's on the ground in front of him. Do you know what he tries to eat on every walk? Cigarette butts! Why, you might ask? Because you can't go twenty feet without seeing one carelessly littered onto the sidewalk. What is it with you some of you smokers? You folks are always being targeted and treated in a negative way....and I'm sure you are tired of it. But how does it help your cause that you think it perfectly fine to throw a butt on the ground or out a car window? I really don't get it. Your old butts share the same space as discarded pop bottles and dirty meth foils.

So PLEASE smokers...if you want respect...stop littering.


I think smokers cost the rest of us huge sums of money in health care costs for treatment of a wide variety of diseases related to smoking.


Maybe so...maybe no....but so are a lot of bad habits people partake in.

I'm not going to go after smokers for that. My thread is about butt littering and why they feel that it's ok to trash the street.

 

[BRZED]

I have a friend to whom I often refer as the world's only considerate smoker. He asks if he may light up in other people's presence even outdoors. He exhales smoke away from people. He never smokes in vehicles. He puts ashes and butts in a portable ashtray that he carries in his pocket. He appears to be a singular case, but he also grew up in the UK.

 

[andrewg]

Originally Posted By: BRZED
I have a friend to whom I often refer as the world's only considerate smoker. He asks if he may light up in other people's presence even outdoors. He exhales smoke away from people. He never smokes in vehicles. He puts askhes and butts in a portable ashtray that he carries in his pocket. He appears to be a singular case, but he also grew up in the UK.


See....it can be done. He's a gentleman. Obviously he was either raised with proper manners....or he figured out that consideration is always a wise choice.

 

[exranger06]

The thing that bothers me the most is when there is an ashtray nearby (like one of these: )

And there are STILL butts all over the ground nearby! Like you really couldn't be bothered to walk three steps over and put the butt in the ashtray?

 

[aquariuscsm]

Originally Posted By: Recalculating
I walk away from people who chew tobacco and spit in common containers and leave them for other people to pick up such as clear plastic water bottles and the like. They may have something to say to contribute to humanity but I do not want to hear it.

Which reminds me of athletes like World Series baseball players using that [censored] and spitting on the next guy's leg like a dog marks a fire hydrant. Disgusting.

Am waiting for one of these sunflower cud eaters to choke running the bases and inhaling the stuff. Eating while working brought to another level. Good thing televised baseball is like watching paint dry. So many other options like reading BITOG postings.


I agree 200%. Being around smokers doesn't bother me at all. But being anywhere in the presence of uncouth people perpetually spitting,drooling,hacking,and virtually vomiting on themselves and the ground because they don't feel the civilized need to contain their saliva is DISCUSTING.

 

[salv]

Personal freedom be [censored]! When a person's personal choice interferes with the health, financial well being, or the environment, then it is no longer defensible.
The well being of the masses outweighs the liberties of the individual. As un-American a statement as one can make, but, oh well.
Here in NY it is illegal to smoke within 50 feet of an entrance to a building yet people totally ignore that. Our mall is supposed to be tobacco free property, but it is not enforced. We are not typically a very friendly state for smokers, but I would like to see them fined for littering when they drop their butts. I would like to see parents who smoke in a car with their kids charged with child endangerment. I would like a law passed where people cannot smoke in public around others. Vermont has a law where it is actually illegal to smoke outside in the Church St. Marketplace in Burlington.

 

[andrewg]

Originally Posted By: salv
Personal freedom be [censored]! When a person's personal choice interferes with the health, financial well being, or the environment, then it is no longer defensible.
The well being of the masses outweighs the liberties of the individual. As un-American a statement as one can make, but, oh well.
Here in NY it is illegal to smoke within 50 feet of an entrance to a building yet people totally ignore that. Our mall is supposed to be tobacco free property, but it is not enforced. We are not typically a very friendly state for smokers, but I would like to see them fined for littering when they drop their butts. I would like to see parents who smoke in a car with their kids charged with child endangerment. I would like a law passed where people cannot smoke in public around others. Vermont has a law where it is actually illegal to smoke outside in the Church St. Marketplace in Burlington.


Wow. Scary.

I didn't mean to start a thread with the intent of empowering government. My thoughts are that people and culture needs to change to be more considerate...not more Big Brother.