I was horrified the other day when I let my daughter play outside only to have her find an old cigarette butt on the ground and try to eat it. My little toddler is at a stage when she puts everything in her mouth. Before having a kid I never thought much about the litter smokers leave behind. These days I really find it annoying and inconsiderate when people smoke cigarettes then throw them to the ground and abandon the leftovers when they are done.
You'll find countless articles about the dangers of smoking cigarettes, second hand smoke, and people annoyed by the smell of cigarettes who want to stop people from smoking in certain places. What you don't hear about are people complaining about the litter smokers make.
My husband and I have several different handymen who we sometimes hire to help us work on our house. It's an old house that needs lots of repairs and we need handymen to help us at times. Pretty much all of our handymen smoke cigarettes. I don't mind that they take smoke breaks as long as they do their work. What I do mind is how they leave behind litter every time they smoke. My yard now has cigarette butts all over.
My toddler also found this gem...
She was playing in a bucket of rainwater. She loves playing with water and will throw rocks in her rainwater bucket, will put cups to scoop and dump water, and other games. One day she was playing happily while I replanted a watermelon plant into a pot for my container garden. When I was done I went over to her only to find her holding a cigarette box and using it to make big splashes in the water. Yet another piece of litter left behind...
It Is Rude
I think it is rude to go over to someone's house and leave cigarette butts all over the pavement. Here at our house, the handymen tend to gravitate near the back door to the house. That means right at our main entrance we have cigarette butts all over that I have to pick up. It's kind of gross picking up someone's used cigarettes.
Handyman Leftovers
Cigarettes Can Be Picked Up By Little Ones or Animals
In a public place you never know who your litter could effect. If you go to the park, it is easy to find cigarette butts around benches and tables. This isn't good because little children play at the park. Young ones can easily pick them up. Babies and toddlers who tend to put objects and their hands in their mouths can put cigarette butts in their mouth or may play with them and get residue on their hands.
When left in public places near where animals live, cigarettes can impact their habitat. Animals could potentially eat them. Cigarettes are made with ingredients that can pollute environments that are aquatic like lakes, rivers, and ponds. They can release chemicals into the water which can hurt fish, birds, and other animals.
One Million Cigarette Butts
Have you ever heard the story of the "Butt Lady?" One woman in Alabama dedicated her time to picking up cigarette butts. Over a period of three and a half years she picked up a million cigarette butts in the city where she lives. She picked them up on her daily walks for exercise. Her work managed to influence the city of Auburn to install containers for smokers to throw their butts in outside of bars source.
A very big problem. One woman picked up a million cigarette butts in one city. Can you imagine how many cigarette butts are thrown to the ground all over the United States?
Cigarette litter is a big problem
"Almost three-quarters (74.1%) of smokers reported littering their cigarette butts at one point in their lifetime by disposing of them on the ground or throwing them out of a car window." quote from source
According to research, cigarette filters don't decompose very easily because of the ingredients used to make them. When dropped on the ground they just sit there and don't rot. source Watching our handymen smoke, it was normal behavior to finish a cigarette then drop their butts to the ground. They moved on with their day and their litter was left on the ground forgotten. To me that behavior is very sad and inconsiderate. I see them doing this and I automatically worry about my kid picking one up. When I think I've picked them all up, I find one another one hidden in the grass or my toddler picks on up on her adventures outside. If you smoke cigarettes you should think about what you do with your litter and make sure you dispose of it properly.
photo credit: all photos are my own.
Such is the ignorance of this type of people, that it is not enough for them to hurt themselves, but that they are dedicated to hurting others with these actions of the bad citizens, you are very sencible to write about these matters, I agree with you, @marx, keep sharing.
Think of it this way. We are educated day in and day out about the effects of smoking cigarettes, yet people still continue to do it knowing that it will kill them. Isn't this an act of self harm and an act of personal hate for something they dislike about themselves?
I feel that it stands to reason that most smokers have some sort of thing from their past or something about their self that they dislike, so they choose to smoke and wither away..
A lot of the smokers I know also have no regard for other human beings and seem to hate pretty much most people they see on the streets until they get to know them to confirm their previous hate for those people. I think this stems from some sort of teaching our society engrains into school children that, "smoking is rebellious and people who smoke are bad." so they act the part rather than trying to be friendly and be good people. It is really sad to see 😷
Good share, always a problem when smokers don't respect others.......
Those who throw cigarette butts do not think about the dangers that occur. And throwing cigarette butts looks easy because small objects are not easily visible.
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Just reading this type of article encourages my horror at seeing smokers. I always fight with those who throw their cigarette butts and tell them that I'm looking for a container or a bag to be deposited there and taken away.
I am always amazed by the amount of litter I see. The butts are especially bad because like you say, they seem to last for ages! When I see a pile of trash, usually fast food trash, just laying in a parking lot, it makes me wonder what goes through a persons head!
I wish more people would just choose to be responsible and clean up their own trash. My owners husband smokes cigarettes, he always throws the ember and puts it completely out, then puts the butt in his pocket to carry to the nearest garbage can. Why can't more people just do that?
Because not everyone has a wife who yells at them for being disrespectful and littering @zeldathecat. Lol I yelled at him for 2 years before he started doing that 😂
I do not know why the smokers have this bad habit, apparently it is normal for them to finish smoking and throwing their butt on the ground, I think it is a question of education, because as they throw away the butts they also throw any kind of trash or rubbish on the ground , sometimes people are not aware of the year that they cause, especially because those of us who smoke do not have to get hurt because of their vices! Very interesting your subject and it gives a lot to reflect in this sense! Regards!!
People are so ignorant about nature and all other people. They don't care about the effect they cause on others!
Have to agree with you rabbit! It grinds my bones! And my little rebel knows how much I detest it when he picks them up, so he purposefully does so just to tease me. But I freak out thinking about where that "butt" has been!
Maybe carry a ziploc baggie or an empty shopping bag when you go out and some hand sanitizer. It would be good for him, you and your commewnity. Make a game of it and see how many pieces of trash he can pick up and how many you can pick up and have some fun with it. That's what my owner did with her little sister on their walks in our town.
That reminds me of a poster that used to hang in one of my classrooms in high school (several decades ago, now) that had a bunch of animals' backsides photographed. It had something like "butts are ugly." and was an attempt to get people to take care of theirs.
Here in rural Minnesota, there don't seem to be many smokers. When I lived in Spain, though, it seemed like a huge percentage of people did and cigarette butts were a common site on city streets.
In Anoka Minnesota it is common to see them littered at bus stops and in garden beds in the main part of the city. I have been trying to battle the burden by picking up the trash and do something about it rather than just complaining about it, but it does get very tiring during these last stages of my pregnancy.
Hi maxrab,
the small cigarette-butts consisting mainly of a filter are disgusting but tobacco is acutually dangerous. The amount of nicotine the body consumes by smoking is far smaller than by eating. So the tobacco of one (complete) cigarette can be deadly to a toddler.
As far as I know, the percentage of people smoking is shrinking specially among the more educated social milieu. So it is propably common that the reamining smokers are statistically less educated and show a less social behavior because of that.
Ick! hisses in disgust my owner always brings a garbage bag with when we go for walks to pick up trash. We don't get very far before the bags are completely full of trash.. It depresses her. I see this. I have many respects for my owner because she makes my city cleaner and safer for kitties like me and doggers who walk with their owners and small hoomans. I wish people would all just pick up their own trash and stop leaving it on the ground. It is unsanitary and unsafe for our planet.
The habit of smoking tobacco is considered a legal use of the drug known as nicotine, for recreational purposes.
Tobacco use is one of the main causes of death, disease and impoverishment in the world, both by voluntary consumption or by breathing smoke passively
Say No To Smoking...
When I had worker working on my wall at one time I 20 workers. A few smoked and they all littered candy wrappers, chip bags, plastic drink bottles, etc around my place. I finally could take the amount of litter and cigarette buts contain a lot of nicotine I didn't want in my grandchildren's mouths or the animals eating. I finally had a meeting before work commenced one morning. I had two large trash containers place under a tree with a bunch of plastic chairs for them to take breaks and eat lunch. I told them that they were disrespecting my home. I didn't go to their house and leave my garbage. They could either pick up after themselves or they could find employment elsewhere. Problem solved! LOL