People throwing cigarette butts on the ground! GRRRRRR!!

[anniecat]

So, I'm sitting in the line-up at the car wash today and watch the guy immediately in front of me spend about 20 minutes fastidiously cleaning all of the garbage out of his car. He made about 6 trips walking back and forth to the garbage can.

When he was all finished, he sat in his car, rolled down his window and had a well-earned cigarette. Then he flicked his but on the ground!!! Why didn't he make one more trip to the garbage can......SINCE IT'S GARBAGE.....and why do I continually see smokers thinking it's okay for them to litter!!

I'm trying to figure out the logic behind this....help me!!

Do they think they're biodegradeable and so it doesn't matter? Or are they just lazy? Are these the same people who throw their McDonald's bags on the ground or is that different? Do they do this when they're smoking in their own backyards or even in their homes?...... or do they take the time to discard of their litter properly when they're on their own property?

There's the whole thing of the fire hazard in the summer when people do this but IT'S STILL NOT OKAY IN THE WINTER!! IT'S GARBAGE, IT'S DISGUSTING!!

[logicalview]

- An estimated 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered worldwide every year (Cigarette Litter Organisation 2001)

4,500,000,000,000 cigarrette butts x 3/4" long each = 3,375,000,000,000 inches = 281,250,000,000 feet = 53,267,045 miles or if you place them end to end they would wrap around the earth 2,139 times.

[DANSPEED]

They don't think that's the problem! They must be the same people who toss there couch and other unwanted items out at night on some rural road.

"Where you going honey? Out for some smokes. Why not get rid of that couch while your out ... Good idea."

I HATE THESE PEOPLE!

[logicalview]

After inhaling hundreds of chemicals that are capable of inducing cancer one would think that smokers could dispose of their waste properly - after all "it wouldn't kill them".

[Belle Rose]

[CountryAtHeart]

I hate it too.
If I smoke in the car, I always have a bottle with water in it and a lid that I take with me. Then I don't have the butts in the ashtray, and they are not going out the window.

[SuperMom]

I once saw someone empty their entire ashtray onto the ground in a parking lot.

[CoffeeCanuck]

Smoking is on a downward spiral. Smokers are not allowed to smoke inside any public area's, legislation is comming to ban smoking in cars while kids are inside, then it will be inside homes and before you know it, voila, smoking will have been banned altogether.

My only hope is that I live long enough to see it come to fruition.

~D

[Saxon]

I used to smoke 20/40 per day then just quit... i think i just honestly lost interest in it... I can still smoke and sometimes do If I am stressed but it's very rare.... maybe 1 or 2 smokes a year or less..it is true though, butts are litter and I will admit my guilt, I have thrown them in the past

[anniecat]

Thanks for being so honest Saxon.......I'm sure part of the butt-flicking on the ground is just as much of a habit as the smoking itself. BUT THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT RIGHT!!!

I just wish they would realize how disgusting it is to be littering so much. I'd love to know what actually happens to all of those cigarette butts that end up down the drain and in our ecosystem.

[Saxon]

I fear what happens to all those butts is they just clog things up as im almost certain they are infact a type of plastic of course the remaining paper and tobacco is not an issue its the filter itself