Why do people think it's ok to throw cigarette butts to the ground?

Just to be clear, I don't care if people smoke and this is not an anti-smoking tirade. That said, how is throwing your cigarette to the ground any different from any other form of littering. If I were walking down the street eating a candy bar and just tossed the wrapper on the ground, people would look at me in horror. I realize that cigarette butts are smaller, but they are also on fire. I drives me nuts to seem people do this -- although I'm never brave enough to do or say anything.

cars! WTF is that? Grrrrrr!

And I never throw them out my car window unless there is someone behind me in a convertible.

;-)

involved. The throwing is symbolic of them wanting to throw the habit, but not being able to.

I don't see why they don't manage their trash better. Hell, carry a small tupperware container so the smell would be contained, then dispose of in the right way. Guess it's too much to ask.

If people can manage their dog stuff, you'd think they could manage something much smaller and not nearly so steamy and gross. Well, kind of not.

Funny, I thought that if there was no ashtray or trashcan available, that I put them out and stuck the butts in my pocket or bag. I guess I was just hallucinating.

EVERYTHING is about me.

Back then you couldn't always count on there being an ashtray in every classroom.

and we weren't smoking tobacco:smoke: :hippie:

Great worker, fantastic quality craftsmanship, shows up on time or calls if late, goes to extremes to get the work done on time. I adore him, and the fact that he's utterly gorgeous has absolutely nothing to do with it, honestly. One leeetle bitty thing. He does smoke outside, but he will throw his butts on the ground, and I have to pick them up when he leaves. Not a huge thing, but - well, they're butts.

On balance, I can deal with it, still, it would be so nice if he quit. For his health.

You could write butts on the outside of it. He sounds like a decent type who does good work in order to keep your business. I think he wouldn't mind.

And I'm getting pretty damned hungry

The way you light up, how you hold it, how you inhale and exhale, how you crush it out or flick it away. We learn it from each other and from media. Once it's ingrained you don't really think about it anymore.

(I went cold turkey 8 years ago and GOD I want a smoke right now! :P )

Its fun!

not really. ..but when at other people's houses I am neurotic about just "flicking" butts. Many people just do it in habit then I mention it to them. After 3-4 times catching 'em I throw a can at 'em.

Well, It has come to the can tossing twice. :eyes: It makes folks flinch at "flicking" time then they react more better ;)

:hi:

I can remember my first job out of college was working for my City's Park Department cleaning the picnic shelter houses and how it was hell getting all of the cigarette butts out of the seams in the concrete on the floor.

Then you see the person flicking their cigarette butt out of their car window like there's nothing wrong with that at all.

We don't piss in your ashtray.


mark

behaviour smoking led to just like that.

and the park was kind of crowded for lunch -- it was one of those urban green areas, with big steps you could sit on down to a little pool -- and a young woman reading near us finished her cigarette and ground out the butt on the step. I said loudly and earnestly, "EXCUSE ME, YOU DROPPED SOMETHING." My friend tried to turn invisible as the young woman didn't hear me or ignored me.

"EXCUSE ME, YOU DROPPED SOMETHING," I said more loudly and even more earnestly.

The young woman looked at me and I pointed at her feet.

"I JUST SAW YOU DROP SOMETHING AND I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT NEED IT," I said, cheerfully and helpfully. "IT'S RIGHT THERE AND I SAW YOU DROP IT. YOU DON'T WANT TO LOSE IT."

She leaned over slowly to pick it up, staring at me and trying to figure out if I was for real or not.

"THERE, YOU FOUND IT!" I cried like she was senile. "GREAT!"

She should have shoved it up my nose, but she didn't. She got up and threw it away.

I'm not usually so self-righteous, but that one cracked me up for the rest of the day.

Why people think it's OK to put their cigarettes out on the side of a building (a gas station no less) and then toss them on the ground.

Also, inconsiderate.

I don't smoke, but I do draw on the train and outdoors. One tin for the woodless pencils, another for the the sharpener and erasers, and a third to sharpen into. Plus, they look cute!

Toxic chemicals can be recycled to protect steel pipes from rusting
By Tan Ee Lyn

updated 8:52 a.m. PT, Thurs., May 13, 2010
HONG KONG - Chemical extracts from cigarette butts — so toxic they kill fish — can be used to protect steel pipes from rusting, a study in China has found.

In a paper published in the American Chemical Society's bi-weekly journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, the scientists in China said they identified nine chemicals after immersing cigarette butts in water.

They applied the extracts to N80, a type of steel used in oil pipes, and found that they protected the steel from rusting.

"The metal surface can be protected and the iron atom's further dissolution can be prevented," they wrote.

The chemicals, including nicotine, appear to be responsible for this anti-corrosion effect, they added.


More at:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37130972/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/

I freaking HATE it when @$$holes drive or walk by and drop that $#!^ in my yard.

Of course, I have a problem with some @$$holes throwing freaking bags of trash in my yard, too, so I shouldn't be too surprised. :mad:

end up filtering out lawn chemicals as the rain washes them down the sewers.

If it's not raining, I always leave a half inch so some homeless person can get at least one drag off it.

I hate dirty ashtrays and some people complain about them, so I always flick the butts out the window. It looks so cool at night, too.

If anyone complains, I can always find something equally fucked up that they do that they never thought was a big deal. If they don't get it, I can flick a butt at them.

many businesses have furnished adequate ashtrays and butt cans for their employees use...same with all sorts of businesses for their customers.

What happens? The neat freaks, see many posts above, quickly fill said ashtrays/butt cans with: Kleenix, candy wrappers, shopping lists, and other paper and food garbage that smokers can't use said containers without starting a fire.

Garbage goes in garbage cans, not ashtrays/butt cans.

If you throw it just right and hit the wind-wash off your car you can usually knock a bug or two off the windshield of the car behind you. People should appreciate that more

I remember seeing this Crying Indian commercial 40 years ago and nothing has changed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R-FZsysQNw

Actually no. Some studies say a year, other say twelve. Some say never completely. Whatever the answer is if someone throws something on the ground and and it is still there a year later it should be considered non-bridgeable. Animals eat them, they plug up drains, they cause fires.

My friend who farms was hauling a load of hay bales in his pickup, a flicked butt from a car landed in the truck-bed and ignited a smoldering fire. Only a quick stop and a fire extinguisher prevented what could have been a disaster. I was in Tahoe a number of years ago and were told of a major fire on a mountainside that was attributed to a thrown cigarette from a ski-lift.(it was summmer and the lifts still do operate then) Smoking is now banned on lifts there.

Such has been my experience, anyway. :sarcasm:

needless to say I gave him my fake phone number.

.
...I used to stub them out, field-strip them (remove the tobacco from the butt),
and stick them in my pocket to throw out later.
.
Never understood the mindset that set cigarette butts apart from other trash
as in, "I'm not littering... it's a cigarette butt!!!"
.
Living in Arizona, I'm used to dry. hot, windy days and many wildfire alert
warnings -- particularly during our summers.
.
We've lost a lot in the past 5-10 years due to these wildfires and it just
FLOORS me when I see people throwing their cigarette butts out their car
windows DESPITE huge signs warning of the dangerous conditions.
.

I confronted a neighbor who, as he was crossing a bridge over a small creek in our neighborhood, stopped, took two quick drags and then threw his butt into the creek! I nearly had a conniption! The creek runs through our neighborhood for quite a distance- my dog plays and drinks out of part of it. I asked him, "why did you just do that? why not throw it on the ground?" He didn't even respond- just kept on walking. Every time I see him now, I be sure to give him the evil eye.