Question about cigarette butts

[MusicMan]

Question: Is it against any city law or ordinance to dump cigarette butts on the street?

Why: I live near a public school and one of the soccer moms parks in front of my house while waiting to pick up her child. It is a "two smoke stop" and both butts are habitually dumped on the street in front of my home. Wanted to know if there is anything I can do besides complain.

[Kay]

Littering is against the law.

[skooba]

Have you tried asking her to put them in the ashtray of her car?

[copperfiend]

Park in front of your own house so she can't.

[KenFSU]

Blast her in the face with a fire extinguisher every time she lights up.

Or, follow her home twice every day, pull up to her house, drink two of your favorite beverages, and throw the bottles into her front yard.

Best bet though is to probably ask her nicely not to throw her cigarette butts into the street in front of your house. If you're nice and non-confrontational about it, I bet she would be cool about it.

[MusicMan]

It's actually across the street but is infuriating to me and my neighbor. It is like the lawn and landscape companies
that blow leaves out into the middle of the street and then take money for it. Seems like they moved the leaves but did not pick them up.

[Tacachale]

Cigarette butts are no different than any other kind of littering. Despite what some people think, the filters aren't biodegradable and hang around forever, making up a huge percentage of total litter that gets left around.

I'd just ask her to stop doing that, and mention that you guys are having to come out and pick up after her when she does it.

[fieldafm]

As my esteemed, litter-detesting friend Kay has 100% correctly pointed out... littering is against the law.

The fine is $100 at the city level and $50 at the state level. 

Cigarette butts on the ground cause toxins to be introduced into the St Johns River.  This reduces water quality, which in turn kills marine life.  The chemicals released into freshwater environments from cigarette butts are lethal to critical marine life(specifically the organisms that transfer energy and organic matter from algae to higher consumers) because of the acute toxity of the highly carcegenic chemicals found in butts.  Cigarette butts are made of plastic(not paper) and as such do not naturally break down.  It is no suprise then, that cigarette butts are legally classified as a biohazard.

COJ, Keep Jacksonville Beautiful and the St Johns Riverkeeper have partnered to install cigarrette butt canisters around the city.  You can kindly offer for her to pay $500 to have one installed in your yard, which is far cheaper than racking up to $150 in fines daily and furthermore(and more importantly) helps to keep our city clean and free of cancer-causing toxic pollutants.

[RMHoward]

To most smokers (not all), the world is their ashtray.  Annoys the #$%@ out of me.

[MusicMan]

Thanks for the answers. Think I'll print them out and put a copy in her hand next time.

[obie1]

ciggies butts are a big old environmental pollutant as stated above and do lots of damage to the earth and water and animals beyond just being trash on the ground. they clog drainage too while leeching hazardous chemicals everywhere. also discarded cigs have started a fire or two. problem is getting rid of the butts its not always convenient because there isnt a place to dispose of the butt right after you smoked it if you are out and about. my lady is still a smoker even though we had a bargain a while ago she'd stop smoking when i stopped drinking and i did. she is too afraid of getting fat to stop cause going a few days for her is not a big problem but she worries about her weight. anyway she has taken to carrying an empty altoid container for emergencies so as not to be trashy and kill the planet but not sure how many other smokers are as responsible as her

[Debbie Thompson]

In my experience, smokers don't tend to think of their ciggie butts as litter.  Maybe because they're small and don't show up much like a napkin or cup does.  If you ask her nicely not to do it, I bet she'd quit.

[hooplady]

Gather a week's worth, gift-wrap them and deliver them to her.  Put a nice card on it that says "Thank you!!!" on the front and "for not littering" inside.  If that doesn't get your point across (nicely) then she's never gonna get it.

[Dog Walker]

There was a true story published in the Reader's Digest many years ago when gas stations were family owned and operated.

It seems that a driver pulled up and while his car was being filled at the meticulously maintained and decorated station, he opened the door and dumped his full ash tray on the ground by his car.  A gray haired woman immediately came out of the station and carefully swept them up into a dust pan.

She then dumped them through an open window back into the car!

Not suggesting that you try that remedy, but.....

[mtraininjax]

Question: Is it against any city law or ordinance to dump cigarette butts on the street?

Nope, because if it was, surely the JSO would arrest people? When cigarettes are $20 a pack, there will still be people smoking them and with all the healthcare expenses coming down the road from the cancers they cause, we should pay people to quit now, it will save us billions in cancer treatments later, oh, and a bunch of butts on the ground.

Make the act of smoking so expensive, it will cut down or virtually eliminate it as an issue.