POLL: Throwing cigarette butts out of cars?

[mtraininjax]

They don't decompose, that is the problem. I hope that now that they are becoming more and more expensive, people will not be able to smoke them.

[hooplady]

My biggest complaint is that they are usually still LIT when the smoker tosses it out the car window.  I swear, one day at a traffic light I'm gonna pick it up, toss it back in their car and say "Oops!  You dropped this!"

[Sigma]

   i did that to a couple punks who threw out a plastic bottle.  They were really caught off guard and neither said a word!!!

[coredumped]

The difference between a beer can and a cigarette is that when someone throws a cigarette out, no one thinks anything of it. If people threw beer cans (maybe coke cans would be better since it's legal to drink in a car) out of the window at every red light people would be outrage, taking down license plates, etc.

I don't think the debate should be which decomposes better, it should be why is it acceptable to litter, as long as your littering this item?

[coredumped]

sanmarcomatt, I really hope that was a joke! Bad childhood with garbage cans? Come'on! Even if so, it's no excuse. As for taxing items because we expect them to turn in to trash on the road, I'm not up for paying for someone else's laziness. I already pay taxes to clean the streets, I shouldn't have to pay twice. Then they're going to tax CDR's because of piracy (like canada), no thanks.

If you weren't joking, sorry. I like your last idea best

[mtraininjax]

Too bad the city has no money, I'd love to see them make a parody of the butts on the road. Instead of people throwing out cig butts, throw out aluminum cans. If you have 100 butts littering the road, just think what 100 cans would look like instead. People would be aghast. But the fact that littering is littering, just because its small does not take away from the importance of making it an issue. If I saw 100 cans at an intersection, I'd be snapping photos and sending it to the TU for picture of the day!

[Dog Walker]

Stopping littering of bottles, cans and cigarette butts is really quite easy.  You just put a good deposit amount on each of them.  In states with bottle/can deposit laws, any thrown out on the road don't stay there long.

Just think, a 10 cent deposit on each cigarette filter and the roadsides would be lined with people waiting for a cigarette to be thrown from a window and your kids would raid your ashtrays to raise money.

Or we could just add a 10% tax to all "take-out" or "to-go" food with the revenue totally devoted to picking up litter on the roads.  Most of it seems to be fast food wrappings anyway.

[coredumped]

This is interesting. Currently the results of the poll are:
Yes     - 39 (81.3%)
No    - 9 (18.8%)

And according to the American Lung Association:

In 2006, an estimated 45.3 million, or 20.6% of adults (aged 18+) were current smokers.

http://www.lungusa.org/site/c.dvLUK9O0E/b.39853/

Coincidence??

[Dog Walker]

Good call, Core!   That means that all but 0.8% of smokers throw their cigarette butts out the window.  Suspicions confirmed!  LOL!

I have actually watched as someone stopped at a traffic light opened his car door and emptied his car ash tray onto the roadway.

What would be the effect of banning cigarette filters?

[JaxNative68]

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.

But, realistically, the police have more pressing matters.

WOW!  That one actually made me laugh out loud at my desk!

Basically the people who throw their buts out of their car windows are self serving a-holes who would rather everyone be inconvenienced by their litter than actually dealing with it themselves.  Cars are made with ashtrays.  Use them, drive your butts home and dump them in your own front yards.  They'll decompose . . . right?

If you feel that the butts are to disgusting to have in your car ashtray, why do you smoke and put them in your body?

[second_pancake]

"paper and cotton"?  ANd I suppose the product itself is just a dried-out leaf, not a slew of chemicals, right?  And the claims that the product causes cancer is just a load of hewy too??  Cigarette butts DO NOT biodegrade in the manner that some toilet paper left out in the rain does.  The butts are made of plastics (ever smoke TRU?  Guessing not.  How about Black-n-Milds??), as well as polyester (a type of plastic and man-made). THIS is why you see so many of them around all the time.  They pile and pile and never go away!  EVERYONE should be held accountable for their OWN litter.  There are products that smokers can carry with them to put out their cigs when walking around town rather than putting them out and leaving them on the pavement.  Cars are equipped with ashtrays...use them and empty them in your trash when you get home.  Make it part of regularly cleaning your car.  When you go to the car-wash, empty your ash tray.  Why is that so difficult???  And if you don't use your ashtray because you don't like the smell of the smoke in your car, why on earth would you think anyone elses wants to smell it when it's smoldering at a red-light and getting sucked into their AC intake??  Reckless, irresponsible, juvenile, and completely and utterly self-serving.

[obie1]

Could not have said it better myself, second_pancake. Hear Hear.

[stephElf]

I agree too pancake.

I'm not anti-smoking... but I am against littering. Throw your garbage in the TRASH. Cigarette butts are no different.

[JaxNative68]

I did vote no on the poll, only because I believe the punishment should be to have the lit cigarette butt shoved back into their gas tanks.