# Steophan, throwing cigarette butts on the ground IS littering **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 23, 2010, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078 "2010-10-23T06:04:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/21 "2010-10-23T14:58:13Z")
I used to work with a lady that I found to be a bit of a hottie. About my age, Romanian Eurobabe, sports a stunning rack to boot. Sure I knew she smoked, but that fit with the European thing…I could _almost_ look past that. One day I was behind her car coming in to work in the morning. I watched her casually drop a butt out the window. Completely cured me of any attraction that did. Hottie to swine in the time it took that butt to drop 4 feet or so. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/22 "2010-10-23T15:15:33Z")
I smoke, and dropping the butts on the ground is totally littering. I field-strip the cigarette if I’m at the end (if I only smoke half, it goes back into the pack, which goes into my purse and gets zipped up so it doesn’t stink everywhere). I bring the butt inside, wrap in paper towels, and put it in the office kitchen garbage. I hate standing there amid other smokers’ dropped butts and people thinking it’s me. Then I wash my hands and have a gum to help alleviate the stench. Gawd. Wish I could stay quit. My car doesn’t have an ashtray, so one of those Altoids round tins with a lid is my ashtray there. I don’t drop butts out the window. I wouldn’t do it at home; why should I do it out in public? The Altoids peppermint boxes (one for post-cig mint, one for butts) is a fabulous idea as well. The round tin just happens to sit perfectly in the cupholder in my car, though. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/23 "2010-10-23T15:30:09Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > No sympathy at all from me for the slight side effect from doing 1/100th of your part to reduce this collective stench. I could give a shit about your sympathy, and if I sat next to YOU at work, I’d bring my cigarette butts back in with me and enjoy your misery, if you’re gonna bitch regardless. It’s funny as hell, really. They make us smoke outside, which I’m fine with. But then they take away the smoking areas (with their attendant ashtrays) and bitch about the litter. And I guarantee you that if taking one’s stubbed out cigarette butts inside became common, the bitching would escalate to howling, and do you know what, they’d be right, because stubbed out butts are smell way worse than smoke. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/24 "2010-10-23T16:02:12Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > Indeed, last year I went trekking up the mountains; … 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. Don’t go to Everest. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/25 "2010-10-23T16:06:30Z")
Diana, just a thought, if I may, just throwing this out there… …why don’t you just quit smoking, you smelly cancer-spreading bitch? That’ll solve your litter _and_ stench problem and greatly reduce the amount of complaining your tortured little soul must endure, oh how I pity you… ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/26 "2010-10-23T16:17:58Z")
> [@sitchensis](#): > > 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. Apple cores and banana peels will decompose, too, but until they do, they’re still litter. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/27 "2010-10-23T16:39:48Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > It’s funny as hell, really. They make us smoke outside, which I’m fine with. But then they take away the smoking areas (with their attendant ashtrays) and bitch about the litter. And I guarantee you that if taking one’s stubbed out cigarette butts inside became common, the bitching would escalate to howling, and do you know what, they’d be right, because stubbed out butts are smell way worse than smoke. If _only_ there was something you could _do_ to alleviate this constant problem. People, can _y’all_ think of a possible solution to **DianaG’s** dilemma? ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/28 "2010-10-23T16:54:20Z")
Yeah, I could quit smoking. God knows it’s the only thing that would make you happy. But since I enjoy smoking and care not at all about making you happy, I think I’ll continue to do what makes ME happy, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/29 "2010-10-23T16:57:54Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > I used to work with a lady that I found to be a bit of a hottie. About my age, Romanian Eurobabe, sports a stunning rack to boot. Sure I knew she smoked, but that fit with the European thing…I could _almost_ look past that. One day I was behind her car coming in to work in the morning. I watched her casually drop a butt out the window. Completely cured me of any attraction that did. Hottie to swine in the time it took that butt to drop 4 feet or so. Hottie to swine? That’s a bit melodramatic, don’t you think? I mean, the butts _are_ littering but they are essentially cotton wrapped in paper. Biodegradable. Its not like she was pouring motor oil down the sink or throwing a styrofoam container out the window… ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/30 "2010-10-23T17:03:53Z")
Oh, smoking brings out the melodrama in lots of people. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/31 "2010-10-23T17:04:15Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Hottie to swine? That’s a bit melodramatic, don’t you think? I mean, the butts _are_ littering but they are essentially cotton wrapped in paper. Biodegradable. Its not like she was pouring motor oil down the sink or throwing a styrofoam container out the window… Did you actually use the term “biodegradable”? _Really?_ ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/32 "2010-10-23T17:12:22Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > \ I can understand that it could irritate people, but the level of anger about it surprises me. I look after my yard, and that includes picking up cigarette butts off of it EVERY FUCKING DAY. If I didn’t go out and pick them up, I would have that gorgeous look of cigarette butts everywhere that is so incredibly beautiful. It drives me crazy that people throw their butts on MY YARD. The road isn’t a much better option, but at least they would be in the gutter, not on the yard that we paid so much money for, and put so much time and effort into keeping up. I’ve come to conclusion that a whole lot of smokers are just ignorant gits, anyway. There are ALWAYS butt stops around for them to put their butts in at work and malls, and there are ALWAYS butts littering the ground around the smoking area. It’s not that there isn’t a good place to put the butts, it’s that the smokers don’t care. ---
**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:** [October 23, 2010, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/33 "2010-10-23T17:17:42Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I mean, the butts _are_ littering but they are essentially cotton wrapped in paper. Biodegradable. Its not like she was pouring motor oil down the sink or throwing a styrofoam container out the window… I’m not sure if the while “cotton” thing is a holdover myth, or if it’s something that smokers tell themselves so they can feel better about being selfish, but… From [here](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/us/29cigarettes.html): > [@](#): > > 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. And here’s a whole [article](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697937/) on the issue of cigarette butts and the issue of biodegradability, litter, and health from the _International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health_, hosted on the National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health website. It’s worth noting, too, that the ostensible purpose of the filter is to catch some of the poisons that come from the tobacco. So, even if they were biodegradable, you’d still be throwing away a biodegradable product that is filled with the various toxins that come from the cigarette. Nice. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/34 "2010-10-23T17:28:32Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Hottie to swine? That’s a bit melodramatic, don’t you think? I mean, the butts _are_ littering but they are essentially cotton wrapped in paper. Biodegradable. Its not like she was pouring motor oil down the sink or throwing a styrofoam container out the window… Cellulose acetate. Polyester fibers. Look it up before you say something dumb. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/35 "2010-10-23T17:29:18Z")
Hey, you know what else is biodegradable? YOU! After you die of cancer! ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/36 "2010-10-23T17:34:04Z")
When my kids were very small we lived in a ground floor apartment with a nice patch of open space right off our small patio. Perfect for little kids to play. Until we got new upstairs neighbors who would throw every butt they or all their friends smoked off their balcony onto the open space below. I spent so many mornings (especially saturdays and sundays) hand cleaning the open space of dozens of cigarette butts just so my kids could kick a ball around in front of our place. And they knew, as they were hanging on their deck often watching. I was never so happy to move at the end of that summer. It’s littering and many people who don’t smoke really can’t stand the way it dirties up the world. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/37 "2010-10-23T17:35:49Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Hey, you know what else is biodegradable? > > YOU! After you die of cancer! Shrug. Everybody dies of something. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/38 "2010-10-23T17:43:10Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > Shrug. Everybody dies of something. Everybody ends up dead, but how they die can make all the difference in the world to the person dying and to the family who has to watch them go. Smoking is your choice, it’s legal and it’s not immoral, so do what you want. But do not make the mistake of minimizing the slow agonizing death of cigarette associated diseases and suffering those diseases cause on the people who love you. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/39 "2010-10-23T17:50:38Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > 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. Well, picking up after your dog is gross, too, but we don’t have much sympathy for people who don’t do it and complain that there’s nowhere to throw it and that they don’t want to carry it around with them. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078/40 "2010-10-23T17:59:55Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Well, picking up after your dog is gross, too, but we don’t have much sympathy for people who don’t do it and complain that there’s nowhere to throw it and that they don’t want to carry it around with them. We might have a bit more sympathy if you tried to get rid of most of the dog shit by smoking it. Nah, not really-you’d still stink like shit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steophan-throwing-cigarette-butts-on-the-ground-is-littering/558078.md?page=3)