Now this is just plain silly. Why have somebody with a magnet on the end of a stick picking up cigarette butts, what's wrong with a standard sweeper? What about all the other trash people toss? Why don't ciragette smokers just realize the are polluting? Why do smokers think their car is to nice to put a butt in the ash tray?

How long until somebody sues because the metal is somehow giving them cancer.

I am sorry, I should have explained in more detail. The idea came to me while I was sitting in a park with gravel paths. Sweepers were designed for roads.As for Cancer, It would not have to be mercury (it will defenitly give you cancer). It can be zink(cink) it show antibacterial properties, and the strip can be a milimiter thiick, it does not have to be big.

Zinc isn't magnetic, to my knowledge. Perhaps if you got it to superconduct. And isn't zinc kind of volatile at high temperatures? Perhaps this idea could work if the metal bits used were thin strips of magnesium aligned lengthwise in the cigarette, then it could be sold as a joke shop toy, the exploding cigarette.

What you really need is a way to destroy them quickly where they are. Here is my idea.

They should just make all cigarettes non-filter. It would also erase the mis-perception that the filter is "filtering" the smoke. Making it sooooo much healthier for you.

Also note, there is</> a cash fine for littering. If police actually enforced against smokers, maybe they wouldn't litter so much.