Think about it for one minute - do smokers on the beach bring personal ashtrays? Seriously doubt it.
I never litter. Anywhere. Never have.
I was a smoker for many years. We have a boat in the Marina in Ventura so I have spent many many hours on the beaches there. I never took an ashtray with me but I would put the butts out in the sand and then put the butts back in my cigarette pack to be disposed of in the garbage when we got back to the boat.
No, but they probably bring drinks, lunch etc. Presumably they have a trash receptacle of some kind.
Why would they not put the butt in with the rest of the trash?
Personally, I did it for more than 20 years, as did all of my friends and family when we headed to the beach. I am also known to stop my car and make any passenger who threw something out the window get out and find it - even a cigarette butt.
I hate litter and litterers. My property includes 500 feet of road front, on a busy road frequented by tourists and the drug dealers in the next town. Cigarette butts are the least of the litter I routinely pick up and by routinely, I mean at minimum every other day -at this time of the year it is a daily routine.