A certain type of litter

[zhunter]

First of all, I HATE smoking

I hate that smokers want to share their bad habit with everyone

But I REALLY hate watching them throw their cigarette butts on the ground and out of vehicle windows!!!!

[-JQ-]

YES!

Why not use the ash tray INSIDE the car?! I know my Dad use to!

[L-10_shooter]

amen brother, I hate cigaretts and the stink that comes with them!!!!

[gino_aki]

I hate that my son smokes...picked up the bad habit from his cousin. And what I REALLY hate and if he doesn't shape up soon he's gonna get a slap for is leaving all his smoking crap around outside the house: empty packs, dead lighters, butts.

[Joe4d]

Smoking will eventually be banned in public sorta like drinking is in most places. I say good riddance. Smokers will only have themselves to blame. If they showed even the slightest consideration we wouldnt have half the anti smoking laws we have now. I never could understand how the nicest most considerate person in the world can be a total rude obnoxious jerk about their ciggerretts. They will smoke anytime anywhere they possibly can unless someone raises hell or a law is passed.

[Steve J]

Tossing cigarettes out of car windows is what causes all of the raging grass fires around here resulting far too often in loss of life and property. It pisses me off to no end when I see soldiers doing it on Fort Hood. Cars no longer come with ash trays built in. That's partly to blame, but mostly it's the asshats who litter.

[Tiny Warrior]

Banning smoking inside all public places was the best thing Ontario did. Now non-smokers can go out(club/bar) & not come home stinking of the cigarette stench.

Also, recently they made it illegal for places like gas stations/convenient stores to have cigarettes on display behind the counter. They have them out of eye sight in hopes it will stop people from buying.....but really, does it work? I'd like to see stats on that.

[chp5]

yes zhunter, but I love your icon!

[RangerTrace]

Z, I'm with you on this one BIG TIME I am very thankful I never picked up the habit.

[JimmyZip]

Does it work? (Anti smoking education and the like) I would say yes. The percentages of people who smoke have been on a steady decline for at least a decade and a half. But then again that could be the result of the high prices. I remember when I heard that $2.50 was alot for a pack. Now the price is over $6.00 here. Soon it will be cheaper to smoke crack!

I don't smoke so either way, who cares.

I work with a guy who throws his butts all over the shop. Burns holes in the poly air hoses on aregular basis. A real pain, but it is his shop, his tools, his money.

[Ray_Z]

My wife is an ER nurse at a local hospital. I suggested that the next time she goes to a unit meeting that she suggest to management that they staart passing out those little sample packs of cigarettes that the makers used to pass out. It's just good business.

[AustinMike]

I don't care if people smoke, but I also hate the cigarette out the window thing. Litter is one thing, but when they're throwing lit cigarettes out the window in an area as dry as it gets here, they deserve to be beaten severely. A hell of a lot of property and lives can be lost due to the careless action of one moron. It's great to be riding a motorcycle and get hit by someone's lit cigarette too. Wanna talk road rage? Inconsiderate jerk offs...

[ken hebert]

The kids here on property (my wife manages student housing, we live on site) that smoke and toss their butts off the balcony soon find me beating my maglite on their door and taking them down to the lawn to pick them all up while I supervise, and pointing out the ones they miss. Usually only takes once.

[Kyle O]

I don't like smoking.

[kaiserb]

Tossing cigarettes out of car windows is what causes all of the raging grass fires around here resulting far too often in loss of life and property. It pisses me off to no end when I see soldiers doing it on Fort Hood. Cars no longer come with ash trays built in. That's partly to blame, but mostly it's the asshats who litter.

+1 to that ... Maybe the ammunition accountability people could refocus their efforts and become the cigarette butt accountability people.

As for the ashtrays in cars. There are no trash cans in cars either but I remember to toss my coke cans in the trash at home instead of out the window. I think the overall problem is most smokers perceive tossing a butt on the ground the same as spitting your gum on the ground. They dont consider it litter.

[Graham Smith]

Like most, I started smoking in High School because it was cool. Actually, it was more stupid than any of the other stupid things I thought were cool back then, but that's a different story. At that time, I gave no thought to tossing a butt on the ground. No thought to the fact that the filter would remain pretty much in tact into the next ice age. I even heard that cockroaches gather up butts to use build fallout shelters out of.

Fast forward a few years to Army basic training, Fort Ord, California. Every day, rain or shine, often several times a day, we used to go on "police call" - basically picking up anything that didn't belong, including cigarette butts. Now, anyone who went though basic will tell you that no matter how careful you are, you are going to miss a butt or two. They will also tell you that the DI's won't miss them. Any speculation that they didn't miss them because they were in their pockets to begin with was kept to one's self because you were going to do it again regardless. And since it was obvious that all us trainees had bad eyes, we often used to do it again crawling on our stomachs so we could get a better look at the ground. That's how I learned to hate cigarette butts. And that's when I learned to field strip a cigarette, breaking off the butt and putting it in my pocket while crumbling the rest and spreading it to the wind. And that's what I did for the next 15 or so years until I finally decided to quit.

This is why I don't think that paying a fine for littering is a good idea. Now, I don't condone making people low crawl through the streets, but a day picking up trash would do the city a lot more good and would, perhaps, make people think twice about littering.

[RangerTrace]

Like most, I started smoking in High School because it was cool. Actually, it was more stupid than any of the other stupid things I thought were cool back then, but that's a different story. At that time, I gave no thought to tossing a butt on the ground. No thought to the fact that the filter would remain pretty much in tact into the next ice age. I even heard that cockroaches gather up butts to use build fallout shelters out of.

Fast forward a few years to Army basic training, Fort Ord, California. Every day, rain or shine, often several times a day, we used to go on "police call" - basically picking up anything that didn't belong, including cigarette butts. Now, anyone who went though basic will tell you that no matter how careful you are, you are going to miss a butt or two. They will also tell you that the DI's won't miss them. Any speculation that they didn't miss them because they were in their pockets to begin with was kept to one's self because you were going to do it again regardless. And since it was obvious that all us trainees had bad eyes, we often used to do it again crawling on our stomachs so we could get a better look at the ground. That's how I learned to hate cigarette butts. And that's when I learned to field strip a cigarette, breaking off the butt and putting it in my pocket while crumbling the rest and spreading it to the wind. And that's what I did for the next 15 or so years until I finally decided to quit.

This is why I don't think that paying a fine for littering is a good idea. Now, I don't condone making people low crawl through the streets, but a day picking up trash would do the city a lot more good and would, perhaps, make people think twice about littering.

That sounds a lot like the DPS Academy!

[-JQ-]

I've thought of a deposit system for butts...$0.01 a piece...bring 'em back to help alleviate that new tax on cigs and maybe help the planet just a bit too...

There has to be something they are useful for...maybe the residual nicotine, etc from them for something and the filters for fish tanks...?

[Dan Hefta]

My Dad died when I was 21 just before I got married, he had lung cancer and died a horrible death, suffered for months. So I hate smoking very much, when I was in the Army and we had to police the parade field and pick up those discusting butts well, enough said.