Posted on 03/05/2005 6:41:32 PM PST by Garnet Dawn
Crack Down on Cigarette Litterbugs
Most people know that cigarette smoking can cause illness and careless smoking can cause burning of buildings, forests, animals and people.
But perhaps many don't know what damage is caused by the extinguished butts discarded anywhere into our environment. I hadn't known either until I read the article in the Feb. 17 Wausau Daily Herald entitled, "Toxic butts befoul outdoors." Lots of damage occurs. Please get a copy and read it. The other day I saw a pile of butts in a parking lot, left there by someone who emptied a car's ashtray. How can we stop this littering of cigarette butts? The perfect answer would be to stop the manufacture of cigarettes, but that will never happen.
So let's catch all the butt litterers, impose large fines, and the money collected can help to repair some of the damage caused to the environment. People are fined for not picking up dog feces, and I don't think that dog feces does damage to the environment. It's just messy and unsightly.
Alice Lenschmidt, Rib Mountain
All buildings are aware, with bans on indoor smoking, that smokers are going to have to extinguish their cigarettes before entering. The smokers are respecting the non-smoking laws by doing this. It shouldn't require rocket scientists to reach the logical conclusion that, if there are no ashtrays provided at entranceways, people are going to have to put the remainder of their cigarettes out on the ground. Generally, trash receptacles are provided but no ashtrays.
All litter is toxic. Styrofoam does not biodegrade. Paper is ugly. Food and beverage container litter draw bugs, rats and breed germs. All these items are killing wild and marine life, when disposed in our lakes, rivers and oceans. I think you'll find most smokers more considerate than the average litter bug, who has no excuse with multitudes of receptacles available.
Non-smokers' trash also belongs in the same category with feces. So, let's provide reasonable receptacles for everyone and ALL try to be more considerate. If necessary, let's fine ALL those who litter. Forget about our police enforcing the law anymore, let's make them all babysitters for the adults they are supposed to be protecting.
______________________________
Garnet Dawn - The Smoker's Club, Inc. - Midwest Regional Director
The United Pro Choice Smokers Rights Newsletter - http://www.smokersclubinc.com
Illinois Smokers Group - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/illinoissmokers/
mailto:garnetdawn@comcast.net - Respect Freedom of Choice!
Puff ping!
This is nothing that RFID chips can't fix.
Oh puhleez! We have ALL seen smokers flick their cigarette butts out of moving cars, dump the contents of their car ashtrays in the middle of parking lots, and just throw their cigarettes down wherever they happen to be when they're finished with them. There could be an ashtray on every streetcorner in America and this would still be a problem! Smokers are the *worst* litterbugs on the planet.
Oh, you mean like the beer cans, paper cups and bags of fast food that people fling out of their car windows? Some people are neat and some are slobs. They are not divided by their smoking or non-smoking preferences.
There would be a lot less cigarette butts on the ground if receptacles were provided. What is everyone else's excuse for other kinds of garbage?
If you are an anti, be sure you don't litter before you point your finger at someone else.
Actually, newspapers and beer bottles are far more prolific, especially in terms of volume. Ban those too, you think?
Thanks for the ping!!!
You can thank open container laws for that one. I grew up in Very Rural county in Ohio. It was common for people to toss empties in the back of a pickup truck or the back seat. At some point in the early 80s, the cops started enforcing open container laws, even in the bed of a pickup. Guess where the cans went thereafter?
Not excusing or advocating drinking and driving but if it is illegal to have certain trash in a vehicle, guess what happens to that trash?
You feel very strongly about this?
Your proof, please.
BTW, this smoker spent two hours sorting out recyclables today to bring to various centres around my town.
Or an ash tray if I'm walking. I don't litter. I'm an outdoorsman.
Then what the hell are those beer cans I see from field party litterers that drive down my dad's street? Or the fast food litter I see on the expressway?
Smokers do their part in litter, but I see as much from the others as well.
When I used to sell my aluminum cans in the late 80's, I'd always get docked for the ones full of butts. Hey, at .90/lb it payed off.
Well, I'm in Ireland, and they don't actually pay you to recycle.
But the local authorities do charge you 'by weight' to take away your refuse. So I guess it's in my interests to recycle. I don't mind that. I'm all for the polluter paying.
Same principle. I don't condone drinking and driving either, but I have to admit to drinking beer on occasion or mixing something a little more interesting into a coffee thermos on a trip. We are living in a police state. Seat belts remember? grrrr!
They are manufacturing autos without ashtrays now, which (in my opinion)is really a crime. Either that or they make the ashtray small and put it in an inconvenient place, so you have to bring you own anyway. Sure it cuts the manufacturer's cost, but even non-smokers could use an ashtray for toll way change. Nothing like anti's taking advantage of the politically correct on every front.
Still, I dump my car ashtray and garbage at a gas station or when I get home. Plus, throwing a lit cigarette out a car window while moving is a really good way to have it blow back in and burn the inside of the car...
Garnet
Those are the ones you see.
The ones you don't see are the ones that discard the cigarette butts in ashtrays in their cars, which by BTW you have to special order now, the ones that empty their ashtrays in a litter receptacle, either at home or a public trash can, and the ones that field strip their butts when nothing is available.
Trash is trash, no matter the source.
You can sell it here at some of the scrap-yards, aluminum is only about .25/lb now. Not worth the effort. Recycling spots closing 'cause no profit. All ours go to the dump now.
Well, Ireland is a small little island. So we are rapidly running out of landfill/tiphead/dumps, and there are no incineraters in Ireland.
We're encouraged to recycle.
It's a real problem here too. I live 1000 miles from NYC, but we have New York and New Jersey trash dumped here everyday.
BTW: I smoke plain ends and field strip them so it's all leaves and paper if you can find anything.
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