POLL: Throwing cigarette butts out of cars?

[BridgeTroll]

The focus should be litter.  Butts would be included in that definition.  Why is the fine for littering only $100?  I have been in some states with VERY little litter that fine up to $1000 for littering.  Nearly every visitor that I have spoke with mentions the trash.  The state of Florida and Jacksonville ought to be ashamed of the trash along the roads, parking lots, trails, parks, playgrounds, etc.

[Shwaz]

I think the only thing this poll shows is 85% of MJ are non-smokers

A cigarette butt is paper & cotton... not enriched uranium. A butt takes 3-6 months to decompose.

How about cracking down on the people who over fertilize their lawns, the massive business complex's that run their sprinklers in a down pour or people who blow their yard clippings down the storm drain and are killing our river.

[Deuce]

If the State of Florida only has a $100 fine for littering, that's criminal. It should be increased to $500 and heavily enforced. My opinion on littering goes thusly: if someone over the age of 21 is caught doing it, they should be executed on the spot. Littering shows a disregard for the environment, no respect for other people's property including public property, no respect for other people, and no respect for themselves. The world doesn't need people who litter anymore than it needs murders, rapists, or pedophiles. I know it sounds extreme to lump litterbugs in there, but that's how I feel on the subject.

[Lucasjj]

I will admit when I smoked I did just throw them out the window and thought nothing of it. However, even if they will decompose quickly, just look at the sides of roads at major interestctions, ciggarette butts are everywhere. The people throwing them out theirs windows outpaces the butts decomposing. Whatever way you reason with it, it is littering.

[Lunican]

1. Cigarette butt litter is the world’s greatest environmental litter problem

2. Globally, approximately 4.3 trillion cigarette butts are littered every year. Smokers in the USA account for over 250 billion cigarette butts, in the UK 200 tonnes of butts are discarded, and Australian smokers litter over 7 billion cigarette butts annually. In most Western countries cigarette butt litter accounts for around 50% of all litter.

3. Almost 1 in 3 cigarette butts end up as litter â€" see the diagram below from Nolan â€" ITU to understand where butts are littered and how they impact the environment

4. Cigarette butt litter dramatically increases where indoor smoking bans are implemented.

5. In Australia, NSW smokers throw away enough butts to fill 7 Olympic swimming pools. Up to 350,000 butts end up in Port Phillip Bay, Victoria and waterways every day

6. It can take up to 12 years for a cigarette butt to break down

7. Cigarette butts can leach chemicals such as cadmium, lead and arsenic into our marine environment within an hour of contact with water

8. Cigarette butts have been found in the stomachs of fish, whales, birds and other marine animals which leads to ingestion of hazardous chemicals and digestive blockages

9. Smokers in many countries can be fined for flicking a lit cigarette

10. And the final and most important thing to know about cigarette butt litter is: Only smokers can stop cigarette butt litter. We need to educate them that butts are litter, and provide a positive alternative to littering.

http://www.buttsout.net/litter_stats

[Shwaz]

Lunican you don't find buttout.net a little extreme?

Cigarette butt litter is the world’s greatest environmental litter problem

It can take up to 12 years for a cigarette butt to break down

If our greatest litter problem was material that took between 3 months and 12 years to decompose I would say we don't have much of a problem.

How many olympic size swimming pools could they fill with discarded Foster's cans in Austrailia? How long does aluminium take to decompose?

[Lunican]

Well they said litter problem, not pollution problem... I dunno.

[Shwaz]

So cotton & paper are much worse that styrofoam, aluminum and plastics?

I'm not trying to say this is good for the environment but realistically 5 out of 7 of the Olympic swimming pools (full of butts) will be decomposed by April of the following year.

[Shwaz]

I'm sorry steven... is cellulose acetate worse for the environment than a beer can?

[Shwaz]

I don't know...
Would you wash off with a wash cloth that was dipped in cat pee first?

think about it.

cat urine does contain a substantial amount of amonia which is a powerful cleaning agent

[Shwaz]

Was that a personal attack? 

[Lunican]

7. Cigarette butts can leach chemicals such as cadmium, lead and arsenic into our marine environment within an hour of contact with water

Beer cans do not.

[Jason]

Slowly drive down any roadway and count the number of beer cans (or whatever) you see and then count the cigarette butts.  Hell, just sit at the off ramp of I295 and San Jose and count the hundreds piled up by the dried out rain puddles.

It doesn't matter how long it takes them to decompose, they are hideous to look at, are a nusance to the storm drainage, and wastewater systems, and potentially harmful to the environment and wildlife.

$1,000 fine for litter.

[Lucasjj]

Fined is so polite - how about flogging?  Or being made to eat their own cigarette butts - and any others that may be on the ground near where they threw theirs.

The eating part might not be a bad idea...In all to drunk of a night, when I was 21, I did eat a cigarette and it was absolutely terrible.

[02roadking]

I do smoke, but I make a point to not litter our world with my nasty habit.

http://quitsmoking.about.com/od/cigaretteingredients/a/ciglitter.htm