Cigarette butts...really?

[surfstar]

Sure hope you're always picking up after your dog, btw.


Every single campsite, no matter how remote or pristine, has cigarette butts. So [censored] annoying.

 

[andrewg]

Originally Posted By: surfstar
Sure hope you're always picking up after your dog, btw.


Every single campsite, no matter how remote or pristine, has cigarette butts. So [censored] annoying.


Of course...I carry plastic bags all the time.

 

[BlastChamber]

Amen, and thanks for posting about this. I don't smoke and have no real problem with those that choose to do so, except for their inconsiderate littering.

I own a property with a gravel driveway right next door to a day-care center. People constantly pull into the paved day-care parking lot and then toss their cigarette butt over on my driveway. It's just rude, and to me it's no different than throwing trash on the ground.

 

[OneEyeJack]

In general, many smokers are inconsiderate pigs.

Recently someone emptied their ashtray out the window while waiting at a stoplight near where I work. That's how pigs live. At the building next door to were I work there's a big sand filled ash tray in a designated smoking area, a really big one. There are cigarette butts everywhere around it on the ground and in the grass. That's an indication that pigs congregate there. There's one toilet that's right below an air vent in the bathroom. The floor around the commode is littered with cigarette buts. Again, another indication that pigs congregate there. The janitor refused to clean up the mess and it remains. It's still used by smokers because smoking is banned everywhere in and around the building and the number of cigarette butts on the floor continues to grow. Management is in the process of cleaning up the mess, installing several smoke detectors and passing the word that anyone caught smoking in nonsmoking areas will be immediately terminated. The day the message was read at a lunch meeting a lot of people applauded, especially the janitor. A couple of people claimed their civil rights were being violated but found no sympathy.

 

[dlundblad]

I used to work in a warehouse in a small town. The property was "tobacco free" so the smokers would walk across the street and smoke in the neighbors front lawn. 2 neighbors were victim of this.. one of which was a funeral home.

It always bugged me that HR did nothing about it.

 

[Garak]

I agree. Leave smokers alone. They get enough grief. But, they don't need to throw their butts everywhere. Should I throw candy wrappers and chip bags and pop cans wherever I go?

The filters really are the problem. Ban filtered cigarettes and cigarette tubes with filters. Let's see who's man enough to keep smoking then.

 

[andrewg]

Originally Posted By: Garak
I agree. Leave smokers alone. They get enough grief. But, they don't need to throw their butts everywhere. Should I throw candy wrappers and chip bags and pop cans wherever I go?

The filters really are the problem. Ban filtered cigarettes and cigarette tubes with filters. Let's see who's man enough to keep smoking then.

Yes, most butts are filtered. Those things take a long time to disintegrate.

I think much of the littering may have a lot to do with upbringing and manners. Certainly not trying to be overly judgmental here, but lower to middle class neighborhoods (where I live) seem to have the most butts. When I walk in the upper class communities, I see very, very few discarded butts. Almost never any litter of any kind. A female coworker also remarked that on a weekend trip up to Canada, see noticed very little litter and zero cigarette butts.
Maybe we Americans equate "freedom" with poor manners/consideration?

 

[Garak]

Yep, if they were just rollies or unfiltered paper cigarettes, one rain would make the problem disappear. We still do get enough cigarette butts up here. You just have to go to the right places. The campsite comment earlier in the thread rings true up here.

In this province, littering is an expensive fine, and there's even a section in the traffic doe specifically dealing with tossing burning materials, such as butts. I just wish the police would enforce it.

 

[Michael_P]

As someone who commutes to work by bicycle, I see everything on the road. I would have to say, cigarette butts top the list on most common form of litter. I think many smokers justify it by assuming its bio degradable. I actually know many smokers who throw butts in their own yard and think nothing of it. Prior to posting, I searched how long it takes for a butt to degrade. Its 10 years.

 

[eljefino]

40 years ago there was tons of litter of soda bottles on the sides of the roads and elsewhere. They put a nickel deposit on the containers and the problem went away. And bums got a line of work.

Put a deposit on filters.

As for smokers, they have the self-hate going on as well as being "mavericky". There's no shaming them, they get it all the time, and it just reinforces their will.

 

[Delta]

Originally Posted By: exranger06
The thing that bothers me the most is when there is an ashtray nearby (like one of these: )
*snip*

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?


Yea this really gets me. Like they couldn't take the extra second to put it on there. I used to smoke, but hardly ever threw them on the ground. Me and a co-worker carried a bottle with half water in it to collect the butts in. I've since quit and switched to vaping, so no longer have to worry about butt disposal.

 

[440Magnum]

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.


So you'd be OK with the collective deciding exactly what you can eat? (red meat raises your cancer risk- can't put that strain on the system. No sugar in your tea- obesity, after all. No ice cream, same thing. No corn- costs too much to grow without GMOs. No rice, requires too much water to grow). Or drive? Or what temperature you set your thermostat to? Or how many square feet your house can be?

Almost any human behavior can be categorized as "interfering with the health, finanical well being, or environment" in some way by some people. So do we all conform in every way?

No thanks.

 

[grampi]

The ones that really get me are when I see a whole pile of butts in one spot on the street...where someone clearly empties their ashtray on the road...talk about uncaring slobs!

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
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.


So you'd be OK with the collective deciding exactly what you can eat? (red meat raises your cancer risk- can't put that strain on the system. No sugar in your tea- obesity, after all. No ice cream, same thing. No corn- costs too much to grow without GMOs. No rice, requires too much water to grow). Or drive? Or what temperature you set your thermostat to? Or how many square feet your house can be?

Almost any human behavior can be categorized as "interfering with the health, finanical well being, or environment" in some way by some people. So do we all conform in every way?

No thanks.


Yeah, people still have the right to kill themselves by engaging in bad habits.

 

[BRZED]

Originally Posted By: grampi
The ones that really get me are when I see a whole pile of butts in one spot on the street...where someone clearly empties their ashtray on the road...talk about uncaring slobs!


Yeah, I have often found piles of ashes and cigarette butts on the ground next to my door when I return to my car in the parking lot. Also, fast food cups and wrappers and occasionally I come across a loaded diaper/sticky mine that has been strategically placed. Ack!

 

[blupupher]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
40 years ago there was tons of litter of soda bottles on the sides of the roads and elsewhere. They put a nickel deposit on the containers and the problem went away. And bums got a line of work.

Put a deposit on filters.

As for smokers, they have the self-hate going on as well as being "mavericky". There's no shaming them, they get it all the time, and it just reinforces their will.

I have always thought this. Put a deposit on them, if people throw them out, then the beggars can pick them up and turn them in for cash.

Working in healthcare, smoking is a disghusting habit that has no practical purpose other than to make you sick.
But hey, alcohol, smoking and illicit drug usage account directly or indirectly for probably 80% of the patients I see. People saying it is their choice and not hurting anyone else clueless or just don't care about the cost to society they generate.

 

[HerrStig]

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.
Smokers die younger and collect less of the Social Security they paid in to. SSA loves them.

 

[bdcardinal]

I hate smoking with a passion. I hate smelling it and I have seen what it does to people. Working at a car dealership I am around smokers, mostly salespeople, who seem to not understand that not everyone wants to smell their cancer.

That being said, I am all for a person's right to do be an idiot. Plus I wish tobacco advertising would return to auto racing, they need the money desperately. I grew up knowing every tobacco company and don't smoke.

 

[OneEyeJack]

Someone told me that people actually pay for their cigarettes. Then they light them on fire and suck on them. Strange.

Try this.

 

[Lapham3]

I recall observing some 'drug/alcohol treatment' sessions years ago=the folks were swearing off their addiction to those while most were chain smoking. I wondered if the smoking was the new addition. Smoking is way down these days, but obesity is way up..I wonder if?