The Cigarette Butt Ecological Nightmare Problem - What it is, and what to do and not to do about it.

a reply to: OpinionatedB

Read my profile OpinionatedB - I am a pro-choice activist. I meet with politicians, write letters to make people aware of the issues, I do radio and newspaper interviews. I AM doing something.

Most of what I do is to make people think (hopefully)

Why should smokers be ashamed? Cigarette butt litter became a problem (if it is a problem) only after they took our ashtrays and left us only the gutter to smoke in.

So we litter.

Think of the billions and billions in taxes that smokers pay and ask yourself why smokers can't have attractive, comfortable smoking areas with ashtrays and protection from the elements.

Think of how much you pay to help other people with their trash and ask why you can't have some of the money you pay in taxes be used for your trash?

Afterall - do you really believe that if it wasn't for butt litter, the city would never sweep the street or clean the gutters?

Tired of Control Freaks

When smoking outside, I butt out my ciggs and put the butt in my pocket if there isn't a safe place to put it. The tobacco doesn't severely hurt the environment. Too much tobacco is not good for the bugs in the area though, it is an insecticide.

The drawback of this is that my change gets full of tobacco. I suppose it can be called cigarette money

a reply to: JohnPhoenix


Pretty sure i read somewhere that some bird species use cig butts to line their nests. If there is any tobacco left then apparently it reduces the number of parasites in the nest.

Just throwing it out there ;-)

a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks

I don't think ANYONE should litter, it's why I don't.

I don't believe in a nanny state government that has to take care of a bunch of idiots who cannot manage to throw their own trash away properly.... that includes both smokers and non-smokers alike.

I am pro-choice when it comes to having an ashtray in one's car, and many car manufacturers do just that - allow you that choice when ordering a car. I believe my dollars are what votes for things like that. The more dollars spent on cars with ashtrays, the more cars with ashtrays get made.

Do I think tons of tax money should go to making smoking areas? lol... where? I don't much care for cute little smoking areas provided by the government.... I believe in smaller government, not thinking up millions more ways to raise taxes!

I'd rather see money going to good public transportation in cities that don't have any (as that is productive and practical and useful for the community) than stupid "smoking" areas - and that comes from a two pack a day smoker!

PS. All the above are just many of the reasons I don't like lobbyists much.

a reply to: helldiver

Another question:

If butt litter is the NO 1 ecological problem out there - where does that texas sized floating vortex of plastic fit in? Or the use of pesticides and fertilizers? Discharge of raw, untreated sewage from every coastal city in the free world?

You get the feeling the original poster was just putting propaganda out there or just trying to sell us something?

Tired of Control Freaks

a reply to: OpinionatedB

LOL - by smoking areas - I mean let restaurants and bars and workplaces provide for the comfort of smokers, if that is what they choose to do. Let anti-smokers choose to swing their patronage to restaurants, bars and businesses that choose to cater to anti-smokers.

Tired of Control freaks

a reply to: OpinionatedB

So we are agreed then - we should withdraw tax dollars for the supply and maintenance of trash cans, at least until such time as smokers are also provided with the same service.

Lets see how much non-smokers litter in comparison to smokers!

Tired of Control Freaks

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

Just take a walk and start picking up the butts, you will see first hand that these butts will be in varying degrees of bio degradation. What you will also see is GUM, gum is everywhere usually big black circles of goo that seems to last forever. Its easy to pick up butts and when you do you will see them in different rates of decay, but you try to pick up gum. You can't pick up gum you have to remove it with hot pressurized steam.

The last I checked there are 5 death certificates worldwide that links second hand smoke to deaths, yet were told 50k or more die each year, but what of the revised stats since so many have quit smoking in the last decades? You think the data would be the same from 1970 compared to now?

Again take a walk and look, butts, gum, bags, bottles even cans. If you live near a little store with personalized logos that's the litter you will see in all directions of the store.

Seriously leave us smokers alone, we pay more in taxes than you, we end up being cheaper medically than none smokers because we tend to not live as long, and we spend more money on insurance than you. You wanna complain about clean air while standing by a road or highway but wanna rip on us smokers?? When fossil fuels are whats causing the smog you see and breath??

a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks

Your mindset is NOT the same as mine.

a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks

you know - you guys have convinced me of something. I think it is only right that I should get to use the trash cans my money provides for use of the public.

From now on - I throw the lit butts in the trash cans everywhere I go. When enough fires occur - the municipalities will get the hint and start providing ashtrays!

Anti-smokers are not the only ones capable of behavior modifications!

Tired of Control Freaks

a reply to: JohnPhoenix
while not biodegradeable,they are recyclable! Just read an article,a startup in New orleans collects,cleans,and recycles them,for a profit!

a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks

I see you have eleven stars. Eleven self-entitled [expletive redacted] and you make twelve. You should be proud of your acting out. Maybe someday you'll be forced to eat your butt.

In the meantime, I'd urge you and your eleven followers to grow up and act responsibly regardless of your perception of denial of dignity.

a reply to: Maverick7

ohhhh Maverick7 wants to be my daddy! He is going to teach me a lesson.

When I see you physically showing a plastic bottle down the throat of a non-smoker who has just littered the beach - then I will eat my cigarette butt.

Wanna talk about acting out???? How about the invariable asthmatic who insists that the smoker in the apartment three doors over and 6 stories up is CAUSING them sufficient discomfort that the ONLY solution is to ban smoking inside everyone's private home.

Or how about the whole state of Oregon banning smoking from 362 miles of coastland!

Or how about anti-smokers who will happily sit on a patio that is located 3 feet from heavy traffic, who complain that the smoker sitting 10 feet away from them is "ruining the fresh air"

You know what you can do with it Maverick7. People are giving me stars because they are just as fed up as I am with the hypocracy.

What to impress me - vote to collect NO taxes on smokes because its "blood money"!

Tired of Control Freaks

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

Great information! When I smoked, I ALWAYS found a way to dispose of the butts properly, even if it meant carrying it in my purse of pocket until I could. Yes, it's terribly stinky, I see it as my responsibility.

I moved to Phoenix when I was seventeen and learned about wildfires in the southwest. MANY of the fires here are started by people simply and mindlessly flicking burning butts out the windows.

I was unaware of all the other problems with butts.

a reply to: OpinionatedB
Our mindsets are not the same? No? I am surprised.

So your mindset is that we need to keep donating money to provide services to the public, while being denied those same services.

Why is it so shocking to you that non-smokers should be asked to take their trash home with them but you accept that smokers should so?

I am asking a serious question here. I don't dispute that we should do what we can to prevent litter but why do you think we shouldn't do something as simple as provide ashtrays to smokers?

Tired of Control Freaks

originally posted by: TiredofControlFreaks
Why is it so shocking to you that non-smokers should be asked to take their trash home with them but you accept that smokers should so?

Just pop the cherry off, put it out with your foot and throw the butt into a trash can.

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

It has been the habit for the last 50 years to explain each and every wild fire on smokers.

Are you saying that there would never be a wild fire if smokers didn't exist? If a careless cigarette butt starts a fire so easily wouldn't a piece of broken glass littered in the forest, also be the cause of a wild fire? The glass could focus the sun's rays on dry vegetation. Lightning also causes wildfires. So do careless non-smoking campers!

However do they know that a cigarette butt started the wild fire? Was the evidence not destroyed in the fire or is the butt the one thing that survives.

Aren't wild fires natures way of clearing the scrub and allowing for new growth. If a man's house gets in the way - that is not exactly nature's problem. Nature is not the tidy groomed lawns of suburbia. Nature is dirty and destructive.

I am absolutely fed up with smokers being blamed for every freaking thing on the planet. Everytime I go camping, I have to work to start a little campfire. Next time I am going to throw a cigarette butt in the fire pit and I should have a blazing bon fire in 30 seconds flat!

If you don't want wild fires to be started by cigarette butts - how about putting ashtrays back in cars.

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

NO - just provide me with an ashtray

Tired of Control Freaks

originally posted by: TiredofControlFreaks
a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

NO - just provide me with an ashtray

Tired of Control Freaks

Haha, cheer up maybe you'll be reincarnated as one.

(That's just a joke, mate.)

a reply to: Maverick7

You like jokes - lets play a game shall we? Lets play: Spot the cigarette butt

www.google.ca...:en-USfficial&channel=sb&tbm=isch&tbo=u &source=univ&sa=X&ei=VpffU5CNIYSkyATV1oKACA&ved=0CB0QsAQ&biw=1152&bih=711

Can you see how cigarette butts are the NO 1 MOST LITTERED ITEM ?

But, its smokers who get targeted by anti-littering campaigns???

www.eveningtimes.co.uk...

A total of 20,401 smokers were fined £80 each - compared to just over 1400 who dropped litter, and 54 who threw chewing gum on the ground.

I don't know folks - but I think I know harassment and financial gouging when I see it! Out of all the people who littered, smokers accounted for 93 % of the fines. And the beaches sure show the benefit of that strategy.

Tired of Control Freaks