Resolution: Ban the Butt
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 12.31.07
photo credit Melsky
OK, personal resolutions don't always work, but what about some national ones? Now that even France bans smoking inside, when are we going to do something about the butt problem outside?
According to Torontoist: "An American study showed that, worldwide, smokers toss at least 4.5 trillion butts on the ground every year, and that's not only revolting to look at, but causes significant environmental damage. Cigarette filters are made of non-biodegradable polymer acetate (read: plastic), and discarded butts start fires, kill small animals, and are the most common item washing up on beaches. A 2006 City of Toronto litter audit [PDF] found that cigarette butts were the fourth most common small litter item, after chewing gum, paper, and glass pieces."
Perhaps Singapore goes too far- "To maintain the clean and green city, there are strict laws against littering of any kind. First-time offenders face a fine of up to S$1,000. For repeat offenders--it's a fine of up to S$2,000 and a Corrective Work Order (CWO). The CWO requires litterbugs to spend a few hours cleaning a public place, for example, picking up litter in a park. The litterbugs are made to wear bright jackets, and sometimes, the local media are invited to cover the public spectacle. Naturally, the authorities hope that public shame will make diehard litterbugs think twice about tossing their scrap paper or cigarette butt on the roadside."
But how about some enforcement of littering laws that we have? How about providing ashtrays in front of bars, restaurants and hospitals where everyone is smoking?
There are some positive sides to almost every kind of polluting activity. Using electricity makes it easier to get things done, driving a car gets you from A to B faster, even plastic carrier bags are quite convenient. But there isn't anything positive about smoking -- or smokers -- and quite frankly, it's about time that people stop tolerating it. I absolutely cannot stand waiting for a train and having someone light up next to me. If I want to be poisoned, I'll do it myself thankyouverymuch.
Seriously. Smokers should die a lot faster than they are. Every time someone smokes around me, I just wish I had my own toxic weapon with me to spray them. Selfish arseholes.
Ugh, cigarette butts are a huge pet peeve of mine! I hate it that so many smokers think cigarettes are somehow except from the littering rules.
Just earlier this week, a traffic stop over a cigarette butt escalated into the arrests of two people.
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/14937410/detail.html
Though smoking is not good then it should be ok to do it outside and also provide smokers with ashtrays, too. It is really annoying for also non-smokers who have litter and not being able to find a trash can.
sure I use to smoke allot i have almost completely quit but I don't litter cause its wrong ok I don't litter allot but if the litter laws were more strict I wouldn't at all The fine should very like a cigarette butt should start out at lets say 25 dollers every time you get cought it doubles if you get cought anuff like 2 or 3 times plus community service it will become a problem for you the litter bug and you will stop littering I bet.
Both smokers and non-smokers benefit from having access to trash cans so they can dispose of litter properly.
ban cigarette butts from cigarettes! they are going to die of lung cancer anyway.
A more sustainable solution might be to require that cigarette filters be biodegradable. Then, rather than polluting the ocean, ground and waterways, they would just disappear as food for something else. People would remain free to poson themselves as they wish and the rest of us would not have beaches looking like ashtrays.
I had a solution for this. If you get caught tossing the butt out the window (which you should be pulled over for), then your "fine" is to bring the court 1000 cigarette butts that you have personally collected from a public park or roadside.
The other obviously solution is to make filters illegal so that all the smokers just die off.
I think Michael has the right idea. Cigarette butts used to be made of cotton, anyway. Now if they were wrapped in recycled paper, we'd be talking.
FACT: Only failures smoke. If you still like yourself after smoking, you might want to get a new cat.
What a bunch of hateful self-satisfied people are in the comments today... does it not occur to anyone that a lot of current smokers started in a misguided attempt to be cool, and are now addicted to a product that tobacco companies have been making more addictive for decades?
As Michael said, why not lobby cigarette manufacturers to make biodegradable filters? Why not lobby them to make less addictive cigarettes or less toxic ones?
There are two main groups of smokers at this point; those who would like to quit but are having trouble, and those who do it to thumb their noses at people like those who say they "aren't dying fast enough".
I was always under the impression that cigarette butts were made from cellulose and biodegraded after two years or so (are they plastic now?). Otherwise, wouldn't we have millions of butts laying all over our streets? Just think about how long people have been smoking. I do agree that tossing butts on the ground is nasty and certainly bothers me when I see someone doing it, but I think the best solution for now is to have ashtrays readily available for smokers, then try to stamp out smoking alltogether.
Thanks for using my photo to illustrate this story.
One of the consequences of making it illegal to smoke in bars in Toronto is that in bars with no patios people go out on the street to smoke, blocking the sidewalk, creating litter and frequently making it unpleasant to walk through a crowd of drunk guys when you're trying to get home.
I'm a police officer, a non-smoker, and a green-nut. Cigarette butts are a pet peeve of mine yet I'm not sure that I could make headway here in metropolitan Atlanta, GA, USA in terms of enforcing litter laws as they pertain to butts.
At my first police department, almost all of my supervisors smoked and tossed their cigarette butts if no ashtray was convenient. I'm not sure that the smokers I worked with would have appreciated my enforcement against actions which they themselves are guilty of.
At my current police department, I have the privilege of working with a majority non-smoking department; no one on my shift smokes except for one dispatcher who just started back.