I can’t emphasize this enough, but smokers, please, take your trash with you.
I don’t really care whether or not one smokes, but I do find it curious that apparently many who do (based on personal observation) appear inclined to cast their trash onto the rest of us. So many smokers take issue when others get on their case about smoking…yet so many smokers cast their butts out windows, onto streets, and into fields.
Why?
What makes so many of you feel you can throw your trash in our faces?
The average smokers inhales 22 or so cigarettes per day. That’s a handful of trash every day. And I’ve never in all my life, ever seen someone toss their butt on the ground, grind it out–then pick it back up and take it with them to properly dispose.
Well, okay, maybe once, my unconscious seems to protest…I do seem to recall one such memory, with no specifics.
But, how would any of you like it if I came into your life and threw used cat litter, used toilet paper, rotten and rancid meat, at your feet?
What you do is no better. Trash is trash. You may think it small and inconsequential, but it quickly adds up.
Additionally, what you do—flicking your ashes and tossing your butts into the wild–can cause fires. And this is what got my interest, having dealt with the Waldo Canyon and other fires in our backyard. This topic came back to mind when one of the firefighters at a press conference brought up the topic, then also added that it’s also littering, which is wrong.
So, if you’re gonna smoke, could I ask that you kindly take a portable butt-can of some kind with you, or use the vehicle’s ash tray instead of the window?
Thank you.
I smoked for a good twenty years (I quit three years ago) but I was always aware of littering and the fact that cigarette butts are disgusting. Therefore I tries not to smoke in the street (unless I knew that there was a cigarette disposal bin somewhere nearby) and always made sure there was a handy ashtray in pubs. As my husband has never been a smoker I learned not to smoke in the car or in the house, so I’d smoke on the porch and kept a bin out there to empty my ashtray in to.
It doesn’t bother me if people smoke or not either (apart from the smell – last year my asthma was really bad and I had to take my inhaler everywhere – and I always felt guilty about using it around smokers, in case they thought I was doing it to be annoying) but there is definitely no excuse for dropping butts anywhere they like.
I applaud you! Thank you for “smoking responsibly”! :-]
There is honestly nothing worse than an ignorant smoker turning too quickly and almost burning your eye out! The fact that so many don’t look around themselves carefully is another thing that annoys me.
I have to say that, from the day I decided to quit (I chose my son’s 13th birthday and had a smoking cessation nurse) I have never been sorry that I did! I have pretty clothes instead of yellow fingers, and can afford the regular visits to Cheltenham and to become a member of Epilepsy Action and the RSPB to support them every year. I even bought my son a membership last year and he loves the magazines so much that I renewed it for him this year. He can’t read but loves the pictures and the fact that he can identify many of the birds 🙂
Cool!