OK - Up here in the N.E. United States, smokers seem to be incapable of disposing of their cigarette butts properly. I see several drivers flicking their butts out their car windows every day as well as regular people just going about their everyday work treating the whole state as 1 giant freakin ashtray. Anyway, here's the idea to curb it. How about a "butt bounty"? Take, for example a pack of 20 cigarettes. Starting from an agreed on date, the cost of a pack of 20 cigarettes say will go up by, say, 2 or 3 dollars (or whatever amount is considered significant) UNLESS the buyer turns in 20 butts in which case, the price is the same as it is now. This might encourage smokers to put their butts back in the them empty box say and turn them in when they buy their next pack instead of decorating the country with their crap. Any takers?
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Carrying a pack of stinking (literally) cigarette butts in your pocket would not be popular. Someone once posted the idea of making biodegradable cigarette butts. That would probably go over better.
Hmm...let's see...the choice is make the smokers carry around their own stinking butts or let them throw them all over the place for everyone to enjoy. That's a tough one....
I think you're missing the point. Make the bounty high enough that every time they throw out a butt, they're literally throwing money out. This is very similar to bottle deposits. If you throw out that beer bottle, you're throwing 10 cents in the garbage.
Even as a smoker, the idea is a little gross, but equally, as someone who works in a public position, I understand the headaches and the mess of cleaning up cigarette butts, so I would support this idea.
In order to make it effective, it would just be a matter of making the 'deposit' high enough. It could also spawn a mini-industry of 'butt-keepers' - little containers specifically designed to hold cigarette butts.
for 3$ extra a pack, i wonder how many people will switch to roll their own filterless cigarettes and then throw the tail end of the cigarette on the ground? ... and then what of people who buy loose tobacco and boxes of tubes - will my 3$ box of tubes now cost 30? i would like to concentrate more on making cigarettes less addictive in the first place
I don't understand why people driving won't put the darn things in their car ashtray.
As it is now, whenever I see someone throw out a butt, or any trash for that matter, I honk and point my finger at them.
Mostly they're embarrassed, but some point back at me with the 'other' finger. I just don't understand how they can see littering as acceptable.
Amen hrench. I cannot figure it out either. Up in the NE, every road intersection is drowning in cigarette butts as are all the sidewalks outside malls etc (despite trash cans being within reach). I absolutely cringe to think what happens when the rain washes all this crap down the drains. The weird thing is that I haven't seen the same littering when it comes to "normal" stuff like paper cups, bags etc? I very rarely see anyone tossing those items on the ground from a car or otherwise. This phenomenon seems to be restricted to cigarette butts. I guess these moronic litterers think cigarette butts are too small to matter.
I know it to be a FACT that 95% of all trash in the US are comprised up of little write rappers!o)
at risk of everyone hating me :P i can probably answer your questions as i smoke, and often litter my butts...
- why not use car ashtray? because then the car would stink. no it doesnt stink already because I only smoke with the window open and put the cigarette outside at lights.
same goes for keeping the butts on me then i would stink (a lot more)
-garbage cans? yes, when i have that option i do put it in the garbage. If not, it would be because it can be a fire hazard, however, i have begun rolling the cherry off to get around this.
-and I am very stringent about not littering, even bothering others if they do, but butts are natural fibers - they will eventually compost. I feel about as guilty as if i were to throw away a banana peel
people would probably make more of an effort if they knew how much it bothered others
There must be a reasonable way of recycling the butts of smokes...the first person to figure it out is going to make a lot of money!