I am so sick of walking down my apartment stairwell and seeing cigarette butts scattered all across the landing. Add to that the times I see people emptying their ashtrays by dumping them on a parking lot ground.
So what’s the deal with these people? Are you one of them, and if so, explain why you think the world is your own personal ashtray.
There are self-centered assholes out there with every bad habit. The same inconsiderate smokers who litter as you described (and probably throw lit butts out the car window, too) are probably the same people who leave other litter, use two parking spaces for one car, cut you off in traffic, etc.
It’s my fault. I told them they could grow a cigarette tree.
Hear, hear.
I’m a smoker. I refuse to even throw my butts out of the car window, on those few occasions I smoke in the car.
It burns me up (horrible pun intended) to no end to see some schmuck throw his butts out the window or on the ground while I’m smoking with them. I make it my duty to be a smart-ass, and point out their littering.
The only thing I hate worse than the stank of smoke is butts all over. (Holy double entendre, Batman!)
There’s a sand park near my house where my daughter and I spend most afternoons - and the whole sand area is littered with cigarette butts. We build a sandcastle, look for twigs to decirate it with, and dig up butt after butt. It’s disgusting, especially in a children’s playground. It’s not as if they decompose easily, can easily be cleared up (mechanical cleaners miss them; sand hides them anyway). Kids can get nicotine poisoning from eating them too. And it’s not like there aren’t any bins!
I think it’s because it is generally accepted that cigarette butts are something you throw on the ground, even if you don’t do the same with other rubbish.
Don’t get me started on mobile-phone users.
It is true though, no matter how much I am against the act of smoking, I can’t blame smoking for assholes. there are assholes for every habit. Even normal ones, like eating and driving.
Ok, I admit it… I throw cigarette butts on the ground. I try to be decent about it; if there aren’t any (or many) other butts on the ground I’ll put it out on my shoe, squeeze out the remaining tobacco and put the butt in my pocket till I can find an ashtray. But if there’s already a pile of 'em on the ground, well…
I also throw 'em out my window when I’m driving, but only when my ashtray is really full (I’m paranoid that I won’t put the cig out completely and the other cig butts will catch on fire). I don’t feel too bad about this though, since the few cigs that get thrown out my window end up in the bed of my truck.
Because smokers believe
'The world is my ashtray"
I think its widely believed that cigarette butts decompose easily, which they friggin’ don’t. A huge number of otherwise tactful people I know will pitch cigarettes anywhere they happen to be, and are surprisingly vehement that it’s not a big deal, when confronted.
What the fuck?
Maybe cigarette companies could make a bio-degradeable butt… that would help a lot…
If I’m in a public parking lot I have no problem throwing my butts out on the ground. WHY? becuase they employ people to clean that stuff up. Hey I’m just helping to keep people employed. It stimulates the economy.
“Pack it in, pack it out.” I don’t leave the filters behind. I knock off the coal and the remaining tobacco, and the filter goes into my pocket or back into the box until I find a trashcan. Even if there are other butts around, I am not gonna add to the mess. Smokers get enough bad press without making it worse!
Well I used to break off the tabacco part and keep the filters in my pocket until I could throw them in a trash can. Then a couple coworkers decided that because of the butts in my office trashcan I must be smoking in my office and tried to get me fired. I took the ‘screw you I’ll throw them on the ground from now on’ attitude.
Modern smokers don’t do anything different than Humphrey Bogart and Co. did in those old movies that made it cool to smoke in the first place. All the cool smoking moves were created then; including tossing your butt on the ground and grinding it out with your foot, especially when you’ve made an important decision.
The only problem is that Bogey’s cigarette was a non-filter. A bit of paper and tobacco decomposes a lot faster than this chunk of radioactive fiberglass that’s in my mouth now.
The only cool thing one can do with a filtered butt is flick it away. The farther you flick it, the cooler you are (d=c). But this just contributes to the ecological problem.
One’s other options with a butt include:
B. If no ashtray is present, the courteous smoker may squeeze the tobacco out of the butt and put the butt in his pocket, this makes his pocket smell like a stale cigarette butt.
To prevent this smell, the smoker may choose to remove the cellophane from the cigarette pack and place the butt inside. This makes him look like the Anal-Retentive Marlboro Man.
In conclusion, we need to develop a cool way to dispose of a modern cigarette butt. What would Bogey do?
One of my neighbours used to do this, or rather let his visitors do this. They obviously weren’t allowed to smoke inside, but it was ok to smoke on the stairs and treat them like an ashtray.
I think he put a stop to it, eventually, when he kept finding all the ash and butts swept up in a pile on his door mat. Wonder how they got there? 
SHAKES, I’ve been one of those people who’s been employed to clean that stuff up. When I worked for McDonald’s I sometimes had to clean the parking lot. It’s a dirty, disgusting job, especially in summer, and bending over and picking up butts that some one couldn’t take a couple of minutes to throw into a trash can was what I hated most about it. I like you as a poster, but that reply struck me as a bit condescending (YMMV).
CJ
I hear ya, cjhoworth. It takes two seconds to personally fix the problem, on the smoker’s end. Since nobody bothers to take these two seconds, it causes a huge hassle for whomever’s on the receiving end.
While we’re complaining about this, my number one irritation is people who throw lit butts out of their car window while I’m behind them on my bike. What the hell? And, of course, John Q. Smoker never realizes that what they just did was a tad impolite, when I give 'em a honk. Next time, it’ll be a kick to your fender, dipshit.
Just to recap the replies from the (presumed) smokers:
**
Some individuals’ ashtray is already too full.
Some feel that butts could concievably fly into the bed of his truck instead on the roadside or onto a following car.
Some believe it is the tobacco company’s responsibility to manufacture a product that will allow him to litter without repercussions.
On fella does it NOT out of laziness or irresponsibility, but because he is trying to stimulate the economy. (Kudos to you sir!)
Some feel slighted that somebody else didn’t put an ashtry or garbage can where they decided to smoke.
Some exact symbolic revenge at those cretins who tried to get them fired.
Some people have discovered that flicking cigarettes says “I’m cool” to everyone who may or not be watching.
And some do it because other sensible people (like the ones mentioned above) do it.
**
Here all along I thought it was just because they were inconsiderate assholes who either didn’t recall or care that they share this world with other people.
bah. there’s no “could” about it. they do fly into the bed of my truck. for one thing i can see them go in by watching 'em fly in my side mirror, and for another i pick the butts out of the bed when i get where i’m going. as for them going into another car, that’s a possibility, but i don’t throw the butt out my window if there’s another car near by.
When my upstairs neighbors first moved in, they threw a party. Cigarette butts were everywhere the next morning. I went outside and was about to clean them up myself, cursing them the whole time under my breath. But when they realized I was cleaning their mess, they rushed down and did it.
Bonus points for them.