And ya know, that offense (the littering) might not be Pit-worthy, but the willful self-deception and delusional thinking that he exhibits in trying to justify and defend his attitude and position is Pit-worthy, at least to me.
It fucking is littering, you jackass. There’s no way to construe that it isn’t littering. None. In fact, had you just taken the time to google “UK litter laws” (the phrase self-completes, btw), you’d have found that you are fucking wrong in every way possible about this.
Learn to read properly and then have someone patiently explain what all the big words like “illegal” mean before you start trying to use them yourself. Fucking twat.
I wish I smoked so I could wander round his house dropping fag ends on the carpet saying “What? They’re safer there than in the bin - you said so!” and “No, don’t bother to hoover them up, they’re not really litter, are they?”
Oh, and I’d have worn my brightest, oiliest, most likely to smudge lipstick too, so that it was all over them, and he could still try to deny how gross these things were after they’d clearly been in contact with my mouth
Come on. Its 2010.
Everyone should know you don’t toss cigarette butts on the ground.
I lived in a beautiful seaside community for awhile and after heavy rainstorms,
the “scenic highway” that ran along the water would magically dump thousands of
cigarette butts into this one area if the beach. People who toss anything out there
window into such a beautiful setting are fucking animals.
What about “field stripped “cigarettes, I always keep the butt in my pocket and toss the tobacco end? I figure the tobacco end will decompose in a matter of days or weeks depending on the moisture but I would never toss the butt because I have seen to many of them on the sidewalks to assume good decomposition.
Indeed, last year I went trekking up the mountains; the group got up about 2 AM to do the last 500 meters or so of the summit we were going to, we get to the top, see a terrific sunrise and then I notice the ground is littered with cigarette butts, candy wrappers, plastic bottles, you name it. I got quite pissed off thinking what kind of imbecile goes way out into the wild, climbs up a mountain for hours to enjoy the scenery and then proceeds to dump crap on it willy-nilly.
When I lived in western Maryland, the only smoker in my household was my oldest daughter, and I didn’t allow smoking inside the house. You can be damned sure she always had an empty aluminum can or something like that on the porch, so she could properly dispose of cigarette butts!
However, there was a house across the street from ours, four adults, I-don’t-know-how-many children, and three of the adults were smokers. They would sit on their front porch, smoke their cigarettes, and pitch the butts into the alley that ran between their house and the second-hand store that sat on the corner. I am not kidding you that there were drifts as in, like, snow-drifts, of cigarette butts piled up against the curb in that alley. The owner of the second-hand store got fed up with it one day and took a 35-gallon trash bag over there, cleaned up all the butts, filled the fucking bag and showed it to them, hoping to make an impression. She wasn’t mean or hateful about it. She said something to the effect of “I don’t think you realize how much litter you’re creating by throwing your cigarette butts into the alley; I just cleaned all this up”.
It didn’t make an impression. Their behavior changed not at all.
As for it being ‘safer to drop it on the ground than into the bin, because the bin could catch fire’, well, hey, morons, either stamp it out on the ground first, or rub it out against the side of the bin! Duh. I would also really disagree with the example in the inspiration thread being ‘safer’. A still-lit cigarette butt, on a breezy day, rolling around where there are lots of hot car engines and stuff? Now, I know that cars don’t catch fire ‘just like that’, like they do in movies. But I can’t imagine not only having bad enough manners to drop it on the ground, but then you can’t even be bothered to step on the damned thing? Really, if you’re that lazy, where do you find the energy to light your fucking cigarettes?
For those who didn’t read the other thread, I don’t smoke so it’s not me dropping the fag ends. I didn’t know it was illegal, now I do, so thanks Snowboarder Bo for the cites, although you could’ve provided them in the other thread.
In real life, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone with a problem about this, and certainly no one who would hold on to a cigarette outside until they find an ashtray. I can understand that it could irritate people, but the level of anger about it surprises me.
The thing is that just one cigarette butt would not be a big issue, but in some places you find hundreds or thousands of them – dropped by many people over time, then gathered together either by the wind or by the rain. And then the next smoker comes along, and thinks, “just one more won’t make a difference.” So no one thinks they are responsible for the mess: but they all are.
Of course it’s littering. That said, smoking is only allowed outdoors these days, and outdoors isn’t exactly replete with ashtrays. It’s often difficult even to find a trash barrel.
The behavior that norinew described is unfathomable to me. WTF, just buy a freakin’ ashtray. And if I’m going to the beach or somewhere else outdoorsy for the day, I bring a ziploc bag to put butts into. But I can’t get too worked up at someone who goes outside for a cigarette during the workday and stomps it out on the ground for lack of anywhere else to put it.
Oh, I can already hear it… ziploc bag! And you’ll all scream that until someone actually brings a ziploc bag of cigarette butts into your office, and you realize you can smell it for a mile, and then you’ll piss and moan about that.
If the smoker isn’t near a waste bin, they put it out then carry it with them. I see many people, including my sister, do this. It’s gross, it smells, but hey, it’s your duty as a smoker.
That’s like saying it’s ok to toss a banana peel on the ground if there isn’t any garbage near.
If a workplace smoking area doesn’t have a bin or butt receptacle (which is…odd), then someone needs to bring an old coffee can or something for people to put it in. Or complain to the building. I’m sure it’s easier for them to put in an ashtray then pay someone to come outside and sweep up the garbage.
There’s no such thing as a ‘workplace smoking area’. No workplace that I’m aware of provides a convenient place for smokers to smoke. People just go outside and try to find a reasonably out of the way place to do it, where they’re less likely than on the sidewalk to bother people with their smoke. You’re welcome, but those places don’t typically have ashtrays.
I imagine this is beacuse you have never tried to pick up the cigarette butts on a small patch of city sidewalk. It really helps you visualize how things add up.
Or maybe it’s the blatant absurdity of the idea that throwing litter on the ground isn’t littering. That level of cognitive dissonance tends to frustrate people.
That’s what I do. I pinch out the burning coal out the window of the car and toss the butt into my ashtray. That’s where they go!
Incidentally, its pretty infuriating to be behind someone that pitches a cigarette out of their car window on the interstate, only to have it bounce off the front end of your car, or worse (thinking of convertibles, motorcycle riders, etc).
I’ve known at least one smoker who carried a pocket ashtray; IIRC it was a small case with a spring-close lid (presumably so it wouldn’t pop open in his pocket. I imagine you could also use a Sucrets can - do they still sell them in metal tins? It’s been a while since I’ve bought them.
I’ve done the same, but I won’t carry it to work, because it stinks to high heaven.
There’s no perfect solution here. Only the choice between dropping the occasional cigarette butt on the sidewalk (which, again, I certainly won’t do if there’s an ashtray or trash bin nearby) or stinking up my office. I assure you, my officemates would choose the former. So would everyone here. Seriously, if everyone went out today and bought a pocket ashtray, by next week there would be vicious pit threads about inconsiderate assholes stinking up their workplaces with them.
I think Altoids do. Carry one empty tin to put the butts in, and one still full of Altoids to make your breath smell better. By the time the butt tin is all charred and nasty, you’ve got another empty one to use.
I think the issue here is that you are not a smoker, so have never had to deal with this or give it any thought. It’s ignorance, pure and simple my friend.
SanVito, British smoker who most certainly DOES dispose of her butts responsibly and that includes hanging on to the butts until she finds an ashtray or litter bin.
The rich irony of that statement is almost too much to bear. Smokers stink. Their clothing stinks. Official smoking areas stink. Unofficial smoking areas stink. bus stops where the majority of smokers throw their butts straight down before they hop on the bus stink. The insides of those buses stink.
No sympathy at all from me for the slight side effect from doing 1/100th of your part to reduce this collective stench.
