Cigarette Litter - A Discussion

[Canehdianman]

Originally Posted by surferguy

When is the last time you witnessed somebody toss a snickers bar wrapper out the window at a stop light?

Hey, I'm on your side! I'm just saying that, in my opinion, there isn't a distinction. Smokers I've talked to that do it seem to think that throwing their butts out the window is somehow not littering.

Anyways, never that I can recall, but I've that doesn't mean its not littering.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by surferguy

When is the last time you witnessed somebody toss a snickers bar wrapper out the window at a stop light?

An even better question- when was the last time you heard the cause of a wild fire being possibly from a Snickers wrapper? Every year I hear of cases of a grass fire being caused by a discarded cigarette. I believe that they were also considering that to be a possible cause of the Ft. Mac wildfire.

[surferguy]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

Hey, I'm on your side! I'm just saying that, in my opinion, there isn't a distinction. Smokers I've talked to that do it seem to think that throwing their butts out the window is somehow not littering.

Anyways, never that I can recall, but I've that doesn't mean its not littering.

I get where you are coming from. Perhaps smokers don't think it's littering as it seems as though it's socially acceptable. When in reality it is the most prevelent form of littering we have as a society.

Does anybody know how much of our street sewers end up at waste treatment? Do all those butts end up in the river or are they filtered out somewhere?

[rbochan]

I smoke.
I do not, however, throw butts on the ground. If I don't have an ashtray handy, I twist them out, discarding any ash/tobacco, then put them in my left back pocket until I have access to a trash can or something.
I shore fish a lot, and i don't want my litter adding to any mess that others leave where I fish. My left back pocket is reserved for any trash I generate.

[sketchyt]

What I'd like to know is the rationale behind smoking with your own children around. I see it more often than I should.

40 years ago, fine... plead your ignorance. But now? I present to you the A+ dbag.

[taco.vidal]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

Hey, I'm on your side! I'm just saying that, in my opinion, there isn't a distinction. Smokers I've talked to that do it seem to think that throwing their butts out the window is somehow not littering.

Anyways, never that I can recall, but I've that doesn't mean its not littering.

Originally Posted by sketchyt

What I'd like to know is the rationale behind smoking with your own children around. I see it more often than I should.

40 years ago, fine... plead your ignorance. But now? I present to you the A+ dbag.

Low intellect?

[blankall]

Originally Posted by ken0042

An even better question- when was the last time you heard the cause of a wild fire being possibly from a Snickers wrapper? Every year I hear of cases of a grass fire being caused by a discarded cigarette. I believe that they were also considering that to be a possible cause of the Ft. Mac wildfire.

Not to downplay the risk of starting forest fires with cigarette butts, but I'm always curious how they would determine something like this. They sift through the forest and find the but? It makes sense in a home or smaller area, where you can use the burn pattern to find the source, but some of the forest fires they blame on cigarettes go on for acres.

Anyone with expertise here? Genuinely curious.

[burn_this_city]

I see people do it all the time and it annoys me, but doesn't the street sweeper pick up the vast majority every spring? I don't really see many in the gutters anymore.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by blankall

Not to downplay the risk of starting forest fires with cigarette butts, but I'm always curious how they would determine something like this. They sift through the forest and find the but? It makes sense in a home or smaller area, where you can use the burn pattern to find the source, but some of the forest fires they blame on cigarettes go on for acres.

Anyone with expertise here? Genuinely curious.

I would suspect they know the general area the fire started, and if their is a predominant wind direction it shouldn't be to hard to follow the burn pattern to the source. If it is a ditch just off the highway you could say yup, this looks about where it started, oh here is a cigarette butt and there are no other obvious ignition sources around.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

I see people do it all the time and it annoys me, but doesn't the street sweeper pick up the vast majority every spring? I don't really see many in the gutters anymore.

As Surferguy said, go check out the 8th st underpass. It's a butt trap. Or take a pathway and look on the ground around benches. They are everywhere once you start paying attention. The ones on the street don't bother me as much.

[Clarkey]

If you throw your cigarette butt on the ground or out the window (and invariably onto the ground) you are a piece of crap.

[Methanolic]

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...igarette+butts


This is a repeat episode.

Old Thread:

"There was a brief discussion about this in the gear grinding thread but I feel a topic of this magnitude truly deserves its own thread."



Current Thread:

"Was just catching up on the Gear Grinder thread and the topic of cigarette litter came up......I think this topic needs to be addressed in its own thread."

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

When I see someone toss a smoke out their car now, it GMG. I wish police enforced it more often if they see someone doing it. One way to curb the problem is to have the bylaws enforced. It's illegal to litter or toss garbage/butts out the window while driving. So start treating it like the law treats distracted driving. Start hitting people where it hurts; in their wallets. My uncle works with CPS and I asked him this very question about throwing butts and littering in general. He said that sadly the bigger issue for law enforcement is distracted driving. Cigarette butts are no where close to the top of the list.

Depends on the officer, but you can occasionally find the one that'll ding the person throwing the butt with the $1000 fine for "Discarding of burning garbage" instead of just the paltry fine for littering.

[Amethyst]

Originally Posted by taco.vidal

The pigs dumping ashtrays in parking lots or at stoplights are the worst.

Hey, they don't want that crap messing up their cars!

[chemgear]

http://globalnews.ca/video/2019486/m...in-planter-pot

[Locke]

Originally Posted by sketchyt

What I'd like to know is the rationale behind smoking with your own children around. I see it more often than I should.

40 years ago, fine... plead your ignorance. But now? I present to you the A+ dbag.

Look...life is full of little disappointments, its best to get them started early.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Methanolic

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...igarette+butts


This is a repeat episode.

Old Thread:

"There was a brief discussion about this in the gear grinding thread but I feel a topic of this magnitude truly deserves its own thread."



Current Thread:

"Was just catching up on the Gear Grinder thread and the topic of cigarette litter came up......I think this topic needs to be addressed in its own thread."

And that thread has references to an even older anti cigarette butt thread.

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=79087

[FireGilbert]

I read this as Cigarette Lighter. I was expecting a debate of Zippo vs Bic

All litter is bad, I'm not sure why you are singling out smokers.

[Crumpy-Gunt]

This thread makes me want to start smoking. Especially when one poster said he confronts people who litter their butts. Another claiming cigarette smokers have low intellect. One justifying this thread by adding it could have been a cause of the fire up north.

Seriously? Its annoying and its not a good thing to do...but its called freedom and people are free to do that. Arent there bigger fish to fry? Especially with regards to garbage and littering?

I guess its a modern pass time to complain about crap you cant/wont do anything about.

"omg ppl who dont pick up their dogs poo!!!" "omg people who dont wave when you let thim in the lane"

[taco.vidal]

Originally Posted by crumpy-gunt

this thread makes me want to start smoking. Especially when one poster said he confronts people who litter their butts. Another claiming cigarette smokers have low intellect. One justifying this thread by adding it could have been a cause of the fire up north.

Seriously? Its annoying and its not a good thing to do...but its called freedom and people are free to do that. Arent there bigger fish to fry? Especially with regards to garbage and littering?

I guess its a modern pass time to complain about crap you cant/wont do anything about.

"omg ppl who dont pick up their dogs poo!!!" "omg people who dont wave when you let thim in the lane"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/heal...lower-IQs.html

Smokers have lower IQs


smokers have lower iqs than those who abstain, with intelligence decreasing the more one smokes, researchers have found.

a study of 18 to 21-year-old men revealed that the iqs of smokers averaged 94 – seven points lower than non-smokers on 101.

Iq scores in a healthy population of young men fall between 84 and 116, but those who smoked more than a pack of cigarettes a day averaged just 90 between them.

Researchers in israel took data from more than 20,000 healthy men before, during and after they spent time in the israeli military.