# My local EPA can suck my balls. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 2, 2014, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-local-epa-can-suck-my-balls/689841 "2014-06-02T15:54:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2014, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-local-epa-can-suck-my-balls/689841/21 "2014-06-02T23:52:51Z")
Ah, Australia, where the spiders prey on musk ox. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-local-epa-can-suck-my-balls/689841/22 "2014-06-03T02:05:59Z")
Point of clarification: Aren’t cigarette butts biodegradable or at least “organic” in much the same way that, say, an apple core is? And an apple core is not something that pollutes the environment (or is it?). ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_Hey\_Paula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hey\_Hey\_Paula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_Hey_Paula)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-local-epa-can-suck-my-balls/689841/23 "2014-06-03T02:19:03Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Point of clarification: > > Aren’t cigarette butts biodegradable or at least “organic” in much the same way that, say, an apple core is? And an apple core is not something that pollutes the environment (or is it?). Maybe unfiltered, hand-rolled like my ex used to smoke. Regular cigs, not so much, especially the filters. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-local-epa-can-suck-my-balls/689841/24 "2014-06-03T02:24:06Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > I doubt this law could, or would, get passed in the United states, although i’ve been wrong about stuff like this before. I’d enjoy seeing a law allowing me to report asses flinging butts out of car windows, with cellphone photo documentation - and giving me a cut of the fines. This happens often enough that I could make some nice supplemental income. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-local-epa-can-suck-my-balls/689841/25 "2014-06-03T03:15:05Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Point of clarification: > > Aren’t cigarette butts biodegradable or at least “organic” in much the same way that, say, an apple core is? No. Per the [New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/us/29cigarettes.html?_r=0): > [@](#): > > Still other smokers see butts as a more natural kind of trash than, say, a plastic bottle. But they are not biodegradable: they contain plastic filters that enter sewers and storm drains, and get swept into rivers and then out to sea, where they can release toxic chemicals including nicotine, benzene and cadmium. > > \ > > Frank Lester, a spokesman for Reynolds American Inc., the nation’s second-largest cigarette maker, said the industry viewed the development of a biodegradable cigarette to be its “holy grail,” but that challenges persisted. Cigarette company documents indicate that consumers have not liked the taste or the draw of alternative filters. ---
**Author:** ![buddy431](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@buddy431](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddy431)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-local-epa-can-suck-my-balls/689841/26 "2014-06-03T03:56:25Z")
So someone reports you, but all you have to do is send them some sort of statement saying you didn’t do it? In the U.S. they at least make you go to court, at a date you can’t choose. That’d be great if all tickets were that easy to get out of. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-local-epa-can-suck-my-balls/689841/27 "2014-06-03T11:23:40Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > No. > > Per the [New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/us/29cigarettes.html?_r=0): quote]Still other smokers see butts as a more natural kind of trash than, say, a plastic bottle. But they are not biodegradable: they contain plastic filters that enter sewers and storm drains, and get swept into rivers and then out to sea, where they can release toxic chemicals including nicotine, benzene and cadmium. I am embarrassed to say that I did not know that. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-local-epa-can-suck-my-balls/689841/28 "2014-06-03T12:34:41Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Point of clarification: > > Aren’t cigarette butts biodegradable or at least “organic” in much the same way that, say, an apple core is? And an apple core is not something that pollutes the environment (or is it?). If they degraded to invisibly small particles within seconds or minutes of dropping on the ground, I might not have a problem wtih it. But food waste takes weeks to disappear, and cigarette butts take far longer. How would you feel about walking down a city sidewalk (or a hiking trail in the woods) strewn with apple cores in various states of decay? Do you mind if I come over and dump all my apple cores in your driveway from now on? Can I tell my smoker friends it’s OK to come over and dump their cigarette butts on your front porch? ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-local-epa-can-suck-my-balls/689841/29 "2014-06-03T13:20:23Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Yep. Notary-type functions can, in Australia, be performed by quite a wide variety of professionals. Here’s a list of people who can witness a statutory declaration in Victoria. It’s similar in most Australian states: Thanks. Interesting. looks like all or most of those professions would require some kind of license or certification in the U.S., so I assume they’d have similar requirements in Australia. Are people in those professions automatically authorized to perform notarial functions or do they have to go through a separate procedure? I’m not sure of the exact procedures or requirements here, though I imagine they’d vary by state. AFAIK, in NY and NJ, one does not have to be in a particular profession, but must through an application process to become a Notary Public, They do get a spiffy thingie that embosses a seal on to the paper. (Sorry for the hijack.) ---
**Author:** ![Robrein](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robrein/32/6728_2.png) [@Robrein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robrein)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-local-epa-can-suck-my-balls/689841/30 "2014-06-03T14:06:30Z")
The father-in-law rang his solicitor today. They have an appointment on Thursday and he is going to write up the stat decs. I can’t go myself, have to go into the city for work. Hopefully the EPA will withdraw the fine and it won’t go any further. He will probably get a letter telling him this time its a warning but next time you try being a litter getaway driver, your toast. The Victorian Litter Action Alliance (another of a surprisingly large number of government litter agencies) has a number of Butt Statistics(warning [pdf](http://www.litter.vic.gov.au/resources/documents/CigButts_July2012.pdf)): > [@](#): > > 7.2 billion > cigarette butts are littered annually in Australia (Butt Littering Trust). > > 33% > > - The butt proportion of the one billion litter items per year finding their way into Melbourne’s waterways > (Melbourne Water). > > 10% > > - Proportion of discarded butts entering Port Phillip Bay (Melbourne Water). > > 1 hour > > - The time it takes for chemicals to leach from cigarette butts when in contact with water. > > Toxic > > - As the acetate filter in a cigarette butt starts to decompose, it releases toxic chemicals into the > environment. > > Lifetime > > - Estimates of how long butts take to break down vary greatly. One measurement for butts in > seawater gave a figure of 36 months or longer (Clean Up Australia 1997; NSW EPA 2001). > > Leaching > > - The chemicals that leach from cigarette butts into waterways are toxic to small crustaceans and > bacteria at concentrations as low as one cigarette butt per 40 litres. This persists for at least seven days. The 7.2 billion butts sounds very high. There are only 2.8 million smokers in Australia, a bit of maths come in at just under 2600 butts per year per smoker littered in public. What I’m more pissed about isn’t whether it is butts or a coke can or any other litter so much as that the onus has shifted from having to prove you committed an offence to having to prove your innocence. Littering of course should remain illegal. How can you trust unflinchingly a reported offence by anyone in 30 seconds, with any name and number they choose, through an IPhone app? Someone cut you off at the McDonald drive thru? Don’t like the woman who keeps parking across from your driveway? The bloke who looks to be walking just fine and then gets into the car in the disability spot? Click click and smile knowing they’ll have a $577 pain in the arse coming in the mail. Karma delivered. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-local-epa-can-suck-my-balls/689841/31 "2014-06-03T14:12:23Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Yep. Notary-type functions can, in Australia, be performed by quite a wide variety of professionals. What a brilliant idea. Why don’t we have that? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-local-epa-can-suck-my-balls/689841/32 "2014-06-03T19:44:55Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Are people in those professions automatically authorized to perform notarial functions or do they have to go through a separate procedure? There is no separate procedure. If you’re in one of those professions, you automatically qualify. ---
**Author:** ![Caught\_Work](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/919ad9/32.png) [@Caught\_Work](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caught_Work)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2014, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-local-epa-can-suck-my-balls/689841/33 "2014-06-04T03:13:51Z")
> [@buddy431](#): > > So someone reports you, but all you have to do is send them some sort of statement saying you didn’t do it? In the U.S. they at least make you go to court, at a date you can’t choose. That’d be great if all tickets were that easy to get out of. A stat dec is a serious document. [http://www.ag.gov.au/publications/pages/statutorydeclarations.aspx](http://www.ag.gov.au/publications/pages/statutorydeclarations.aspx) > [@](#): > > The penalty for making a false statement in a statutory declaration is a maximum of four years imprisonment. Your don’t sign them for shits and giggles. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-local-epa-can-suck-my-balls/689841.md?page=1)