I was in a national park this past weekend. Beautiful scenery, gorgeous vistas, and the clearest air anyone could ask for.
Until some jerkass decided it was the perfect time to light up on the trail and then flick his cigarette into the woods. During fire season. Fucking asshole.
I was at some remote sea the other week. Pretty long, steep hike that took me like 3 hours. I just thought that this was probably the moste remote and beautiful place that i have ever seen, and still, there were cigarette buds scattered along the path.
Addiction or not, someone who doesn't put their trash where it belongs is disgusting scum.
Especially when that trash can start a fire.
That is why I keep the league of legends icon in the bin 💪
I live in Scotland it's so damp that you can't start a fire with fire let alone a cigarette butt.
You don't realize how scarce trash cans there are until you start smoking.
That's why I became enlightened and switched to vaping. Now I can stop worrying about trashcans and just pour chemicals straight into the ground (and into my own pockets). 256 IQ move right there, so smart it overflows back to 0.
When I was still smoking I had a pocket ashtray. Saw them in some random anime a couple of years back and then bought one.
"On your right you can see our newest national heritage, the Elfbar-forest"
My boss literally wanted me to clean up cigarettes that him and several other workers threw on the ground constantly. Keep in mind there’s a cigarette trash can that’s right outside but no one cares to use it. Needless to say, I said fuck no and he didn’t argue lmao.
smoking is a beautifully executed tax on people via addiction. They created a product they cloak in the terminology of freedom and history, loaded with additional addictive chemicals and pushed it on our youth years ago. It's not bad enough to kill you or your ability to "produce" but the odds are good it will kill you before you can collect social security and will act as a daily tax as its marked as a luxury good. It's disgusting for all kinds of reasons that have nothing to do with the filter or the smell.
Let me just add the following:
Many smokers never even think about it. It's the most normal thing in the world to them to just flick their cigarette anywhere. It's so engrained in their brains that it's okay to do so, which is the main part of the problem.
Just calling them out on it to make them aware can be a great start.
The problem is that calling them out on this behaviour is usually met with aggression...
That can sadly happen, yeah. I only do it when there's enough other people around to hear and see it, which also puts extra pressure on them.
Blame TV and movies too
Maybe big tobacco as well. I feel bad for someone with an addiction. But choosing to throw waste on streets, sidewalks, or natural places is just rude and gross. Don't make your problem everyone's problem.
I can't really comprehend how it got so accepted. Why don't we punish this behaviour sufficiently if it is observed. Something like 12h of picking up filters would be quite fitting.
How would that be enforced?
Look at Singapore
I think it probably would be enough if smokers just have to fear getting caught because its really not that big of a deal to throw it into the trash.
The first time a smoker would ask...
A reminder: the filters are basically plastic and will last forever.
Say what you want about the rest, it's filters which bother me the most.
up to 10 years or so, actually --> https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/1543-measuring-biodegradability
not sure about glass - obsidian is basically glass and it lasts a lot longer than that.
Not sure about that list - they don't "biodegrade", but they do break down into microplastics, our favourite size of plastic these days.
I thought they were cotton. TIL.
Cellulose acetate. Yeah.
Interesting.
"cigarette filters take years to be broken down in the open"
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose_acetate
Not that I doubted you at all, I just wanted to get a bit more detail. The whole article is rather interesting in how we've used CA as a society and what happens to it. In some cases, according to the above, the product can be biodegraded using cellulaise and exposure to 280nm or smaller wavelengths of light to promote the process; the cellulaise is only present in very bio-active soil, which isn't common in places where smokers will be tossing their butts, the filter is usually protected by paper wrap, so even sitting in the open where it can be bombarded with direct sunlight, there's going to be a significant delay before any UV can reach the CA in the filter.
I'm extrapolating from the Wikipedia article for that last bit.... but it's logically sound. Between the difficulty of UV reaching the CA, plus the absence of any additional substances to aid in the degradation of the CA, it would take substantial time to degrade. Though it's derived from either cotton or wood cellulose.
It's fascinating stuff.
I've never regularly smoked cigarettes, and I've always had an issue with people just flicking their butts wherever they want. Now I have scientific information to support that discomfort, so thanks
I totally agree with you re: disposing of the end of the cigs. But when you're outside, do you have an issue with the ash aswell?
I love sending in dashcam videos of litterers, instant $400 fine lol
Technically nature made us and in time we made plastic, so technically nature made plastic... This is all just nature's fault! Kill it! 😬
I think smokers are unaware, that cigarette filters are plastic. Plastic full of environmental toxins.
I don't smoke cigarettes anymore but when I did I was fully aware that the tips were disasters in terms of how long they take to break down and their pollution impact, which is why I'd never throw them anywhere that wasn't an ashtray or a bin.
Now joints, I've felt free to when it's just a bit of paper and organic matter that is pretty much already obliterated just by smooshing it with my shoe.
All the smokers I know pocket their butts and toss them in the garbage later 🤷
I guess they still ash their cigs on the ground, but I don't really see ash as an issue. Maybe it is, but not to my knowledge
Ash is not as much of an issue, the butts are toxic to wildlife.
My experience is totally opposite, I don't know a single smoker who disposes of their butts properly.
I can't speak to quantities or rates, but I see a LOT of cigarette butts on the ground. This meme is right on target, in my experience.
My "favorite" was the time one threw their cigarette butt out the window of their car on a highway and it somehow ended up under the cowl of my windshield, so the smell was being sucked into my car by the ventilation system. And I couldn't easily get in there to remove it - I needed tools I didn't have on the road with me. At least it didn't start a fire.
That's nasty, I have a nice burn hole in my jacket because someone tossed a lit cigarette out of their window and it landed in my jacket hoodie while riding a motorcycle.
I’ve since quit, but me and my friends would dispose of our butts properly. The problem is like a single asshole can toss 20+ butts in a day. So it’s really obvious when people are shitheads, but you’ll basically never notice people are functioning members of society.
I did when I smoked. I knew a few others who did as well (maybe only when I was around them idk). But yeah, the vast majority don't give a fuck.
I hate to say it, but these days it's kind of a thing mostly underprivileged people do, and these people tend to have bigger problems than being socially and environmentally conscious.
Did i just see this same meme on c/ich_iel or am i worse at german than i thought?
