Smokers flicking cigarette buts out the car window
 

For starters, I don't smoke cigarettes. I used to smoke socially when I'd had a LOT to drink and wanted a quick nicotine buzz, but I'd always dispose of them properly. Can anyone tell me why it is that some smokers feel they have the right to toss their cigarette butts out the car window? Do they not understand the concept of littering? Do they feel they can trash their bodies with cigarette smoke and thus justify trashing the planet with those bits of crap? I have a car without an ashtray. I carry around a small plastic sack to keep bits of trash in. When the sack is full, I emtpy it into a trash can, I don't dump the stuff in some parking lot or thow it out the window as I am crusing down the road. If you do throw your butts out the window, don't give me the excuse that the car you drive has no ashtray. That's no reason not to get a portable ashtray and disposing of those butts properly.
To learn more about this subject I searched Google for cigarette. The third hit down was: http://www.cigarettelitter.org. I was a bit shocked that it would show up so high in the search list until I realized how many other people are interested in the topic as well.
One last story. A while back I was hanging out on a pedestrian mall with a couple of friends that smoke. When they finished they tossed their butts onto the curb. When I told them not to throw their trash on the ground, one said 'Why not? The street sweeper has to have something to pick up.' Sheesh :rolleyes: Talk about a rationalization.

And the fire hazard. We have a huge arid bit in the centre of the country but you still see idiots tossing butts in Summer when everything is dry. :rolleyes:

I wanted to kill the driver in front of me when he threw a cigarette butt out of the window and it exploded into a shower of sparks on my hood. It didn't cause a lot of damage, but it almost gave me a heart attack.

We have had numerous forest fires in the western U.S. caused by dumbasses throwing cigarette butts out the window. I don't see what the big deal is. Most cars have ashtrays that are covered and are easily removed to empty.

I have to admit that when I used to smoke I was guilty of this. It was simply a convience thing. I'm not proud of it and hate having to clean butts up from my yard after parties. I have since learned the error of my ways.

wish I had a bulldozer when I see it, sort 'em out real quick.

one of my very few pet peeves

It's one of my pet peeves as well.
Huge fire hazard here during dry spells.

Used to just LOVE getting beaned by lit cigarettes when I rode behind somebody on my motorcycle.

Of course, smoking itself is not the most intelligent activity to begin with.

i think i hate smoking more than littering to be honest, so i think i would be unfairly harsh here.

i really hate it when the glowing butt flies directly into my windshield. It freaks me out. I have never known a smoker who does not litter. Have you?

When I smoke in my car, I just put the butts in an empty pepsi can or an empty taco bell cup. It's not hard.

I'd ask more why you insist on pouring carbon monoxide out the exhaust of your car and impair my breathing, than how my one-inch (bio-degradable) butt impacts on your life.

I smoke cigs. I dont drive. Which fucks up all of our air more?

Sheesh

Tekaweni, with cars you can argue that they have a valid purpose, like transportation, but cigarrettes do not have any valid purpose. I will think about you the next time I wrap my lips around my tailpipe and breathe deep. Plus, I have never heard that cigarrette butts are biodegradeable. And does not driving a car allow you credits for littering? Hmm?
I have often been tempted to jump out at lights when someone drops their cig on the ground and say "excuse me, you dropped this" as I toss it into their lap or the back seat of their car. I figure if they try to get out, I can just hold their door shut until they drive away. They can't get out until I let go. If I ever do it, I will also have my mace in my hand and say, "it's just not worth it, buddy. Drive on. "

Actually, I wasn't talking about air pollution. Unfortunately, living in America usually means driving to get anywhere. Outside major metropolitan areas an automobile is not a luxury, it is a necessity. I admit we have really crappy public transportation, I blame it on the oil and auto industries. I drive a (fairly) fuel efficient vehicle and take it easy on the gas to reduce pollution. Tekaweni, do you take the time to throw your cigarette butts in an ash tray or just toss them on the street?

My wife does this, and I really can't stand it when she does. She also has no problems throwing various other things out of windows... pizza crusts, unfinished food, etc... she says that a little critter will get it... and it won't be there for long... sheesh...

Tekaweni, when someone who drives throws their used and broken car parts on the sidewalk, I'm just as unhappy. It just doesn't happen as often.

I used to be VERY careful to NEVER throw my butts on the ground. I always knocked off the cherry, stomped that, then disposed of the butt however possible. But, after nearly lighting myself and my car on fire Lord knows how many times, I've given up. If I'm smoking a cigar, it goes in the ashtray, but for cigarettes, it's right out the window. If available, I will use a cup or bottle...but if it spills nasty cigarette water (gotta have a little water to put out the embers), then my car stinks for daaaaays (of course, leaving the butt in the ashtray does that too).

I was very unsure of this process, until I noticed that most cops that smoke ash out the window, and some dispose of butts that way, as well. And as far as dropping them on sidewalks, I noticed that all of the maintenance/cleaning crew at school throws their's down, and they're the ones that have to clean the place!

With that said, I am conscious of certain situations in which it is VERY inappropriate to throw the butts on the ground, and as such, I dispose of them properly. And I use the ashtrays outside buildings whenever possible.

I hate people who don't dispose of their cigarette butts properly, PERIOD. I don't care if it looks cool that you throw it away and don't seem to care about littering, it's fucking obnoxious and it makes our planet look like shit.

I don't care about pollutants, there are too many of them to complain about, but littering is something that can be easily avoided. put your trash where it belongs or smoke the rest of the filter.

Hey Bones, if the earth is your trashcan, you won't mind if I come over and shit in your yard, do you? I guess the earth will be my toilet.

Not ignorant...just inconsiderate & sloppy
Just my opinion.

Sorry to tell you, but if you already are smoking, you/your car probably smell pretty bad already. Just guessing though. I figured it was pretty safe to assume that all smokers smelled the same.

Butts are not biodegradable. Just do a google and see for yourself.

This is definitely true. I thing most smokers don't realize how much their homes or vehicles stink because they are used to the smell. I will never buy a used vehicle from a smoker because the smell will never be gone.
If you check out the link I posted you will see that cigarette butts are not biodegradeable in the sense that most people think of. Tossing an unfinished piece of fruit out the window is still tacky, but at least it will degrade within a week or two. Cigarette filters take years to degrade and during that time the chemicals which were filtered are leached into the nearest groundwater.

Fruit can take years to biodegrade, an orange peel dropped in the fynbos here by us can last for 2 or more
years

Cut me some slack here. My point was that a piece of fruit will degrade into natural byproducts. It seems the Fynbos is an arid region and that will affect the length of time something takes to degrade. If it takes an orange peel years to degrade in the Fynbos, just imagine how long it would take a cigarette butt and how much damage it would do the the ecology.

Thanks for posting this. I never understood why smokers feel it's okay to just drop their shit on the ground. If I was a smoker, I'd never be able to do that. Littering is littering. I'd have to find someplace to throw it out.

Gotta agree with you there. If you are concerned about your car stinking, sorry folks, it already does. So do you. So do your clothes. So does your house. I don't understand how smokers can stand the smell of themselves. I guess they just tune it out. Too bad the rest of us can't. I guarantee you won't smell any worse by keeping the butt in your car, so do everyone else a favor and keep it in there.

You can't? Try it :D

If a smoker smells it, it means it smells worse, since they already "tuned out" the regular smell non-smokers so readily detest.

The one nice thing about cigarette smokers is that the addiction is self-limiting. Eventually they will take care of themselves through attrition. Bye-Bye, what did you want on your tombstone? How about "I am the author of my own mortality, and no one can take that from me. Cough cough, hackcckk."

This practice annoys the fuck out of me. Somewhere between the yankees winning the world series and someone raping my sister on the annoyance scale.

not cool.

No, its quite wet (>400mm pa). The limiting factor is that the moisture is seasonal and the temperature fluctuates as well. We have a mediterranean climate which = warm dry summers & cold wet winters.

For bacterial activity to be optimum, you need warm moist conditions. This explains the rapid decomposition of stuff in the Amazon (for example) and why your peel in the tundra could well stay there for 10 or more years.

yeah I can't stand that it is dangerous especially at night when you are following someone and not really paying attention and you see that shower of sparks, I have swerved a couple of times, not to mention it is disgusting and litters the sides of roads everywhere!!

what are you doing driving at night, following someone and *NOT* paying attention?

Bones, it's apparent that there are many people who aren't going to care nor listen. (Are you even reading the posts in this thread; you have said nothing in response?)
People do things for a reason. Maybe you could defend your side of the issue or at least express some intelligible feeling.
This isn't a poll or survey. And you should save your retorts and remarks for an actual conversation.

Oh yea, I once saw a cheese cracker on the side of the street that somehow melted or melded with the street. It's been there for years through rain and snow.

I live near Lake Michigan, and once in a while a bunch of people gather all the butts (thousands of them) and deliver them to the cigarette company.

I used to toss em out the window up till about a year ago, then I decided to simply use the ashtray. I think I stopped throwing them out the window when I heard birds were choking on them, I don't quite remember, but now I'm perfectly accustomed to using an ashtray.

My gf and I were waiting to exit a parking lot. The car in front of us was sitting, waiting for street traffic to clear to exit when the passenger dumped the ashtray full of cigarette butts out her window. My gf was out of the car and was at their window in record time and firmly told her to pick up their trash or she'd have them arrested for littering. They picked it all up...

I, of course am paying attention to the driving but you never experience when you are not directly staring at the car in front of you and they swerve, or flick a butt or something of that nature which causes you to notice!! That's what I meant

Please give your GF a hug and kiss from me. I detest this habit and no amount of smartass answers from bones can rationalize it. My pet peeve in this vein are smoking areas. Outside our local hospital are clearly marked benches( with huge ashtrays) for smoking, and all the benches around these areas( the non-smoking benches) are surrounded by crushed butts. the smoking benches are also surrounded by butts because, and I can only assume, it is really hard to lift your arm up to dispose of your cigarette in the receptical provided.

We're having a similar problem at our campus.

The Student Government Association is trying to add more cig butt recepticals, but it can be hard to justify them because a lot of the existing ones (placed in especially convenient areas) are not utilized.