What are some ways we can stop people from littering with cigarette butts?

[CreekDog]

i see them at parks, on streets, thrown from windows, etc.

are cigarette butts seen by some people as not actually being litter? i notice it's one of the few things i'll see disposed of while others are looking.

this is not a criticism of all smokers, just those that litter this way.

[Cirque du So-What]

1. Fine the hell outta them?

although I expect that would only drive the behavior 'underground' as people looked around a bit more before tossing the butt.

[JJChambers]

2. E cigs!

[LadyHawkAZ]

4. +1

[CreekDog]

10. won't they throw them away too?

[LadyHawkAZ]

20. Disposables, possibly

Refillables, no. I'd like to see a focal shift away from the disposables and toward the refillable tanks anyhow- they are easier on the wallet, taste better and most of the fluids are locally made.

[Tikki]

9. Tend to the metal cartridge disposal, please...

Some are finding their way onto roads and highways and causing tire punctures.

Prob same people who would throw a cigarette butt out a window or anywhere in public.

Tikki

[Renew Deal]

14. Are those biodegradable or recyclable?

[Tikki]

21. Hope you all are doing this...

http://earth911.com/health/e-cigarettes/
Recycling Mystery from Paula Felps 11/20/13
Recycling Mystery: E-Cigarettes

Remove the filler material from the cartridge
Wash it thoroughly in running water until all nicotine residue is gone
Wrap the filler in a scrap of biodegradable material
Wash the plastic cartridge under running water
Plug it with the original plug
Dispose of it as you would any other plastic waste
For disposing of batteries, manufacturers say the battery should be fully discharged and cooled, then submerged into a container of cold saltwater and covered securely with a lid. The battery should be left in the saltwater for two weeks, then wrapped in newspaper or paper towels and placed in the trash.

Since the batteries and their chargers qualify as electronic waste, users can also check with their city regarding guidelines for electronic waste disposal.

Tikki

[hlthe2b]

3. Could treat them like some areas treat dog owners who don't pick up poop... DNA test & fine like

crazy...


Tongue in cheek, acknowledging the inherent practical issues, but still.... The future may come...

[Lars39]

5. There used to be PSA Anti-littering campaigns on tv.

Highly effective.

[ScreamingMeemie]

22. There still are. Texas runs them all the time. I tried to find the new one

but here's the George Strait one:

[Lars39]

24. That was nice! Always have liked him. :-)

[ScreamingMeemie]

25. Me too!

[Zorra]

6. Arrest them and give them a choice of mandatory sentence: 10 days in jail,

or pick up an entire full sized garbage sack of cigarette butts, to be taken to the county landfill under supervision.

Their fingerprints will be all over the evidence, so they'd have to cop a plea.

[Logical]

7. All smokers say they don't throw them out the window. LOL, never met one who admitted it. n-t

[Mariana]

26. It may be true.

We've all heard about how filter tips take thousands of years to decompose. Those butts on the ground could have been there for decades, for all we know.

[boston bean]

38. put ashtrays as standard in the cars, not special order.

that would probably help immensely.

If you don't use the ashtray, use it as a coin holder.

[Bigmack]

8. First, we resurrect (bring back from hell, in this case)...

... one of my Drill Instructors at MCRD San Diego.

We turn Sgt. Jennings loose on their asses.

They would never drop a butt again.

[Brother Buzz]

11. We could let loose a mob of nicotine addicted vipers and let Mother Nature level the playing field

[CFLDem]

27. Lol

Or nicotine addicted squirrels.

It's a real thing. The ones on my college campus would actually collect and bury them for future ingestion.

[Sissyk]

12. Ashtrays? lol!

We still have those around here in front of most every store, restaurant, mall, etc. etc. etc. Even at the post office.

[beaglelover]

13. A lot of new cars don't come with ashtrays anymore.

Hence the need to throw the butt out the window.

[bluestate10]

18. Cars not having an ash tray is no reason to toss a butt out a car window.

A person can put a removable tray in part of the drink holder (which is large enough these days to hold a drink and an ashtray). A lit butt can cause a brush or forest fire if it lands in dry folder.

[Sissyk]

29. You can buy them.

We buy butt buckets that sit in the cup holder, has a cig size hole in the top you drop the cig threw. Easy. No fuss. No liter.

[WillyT]

23. It Really Is That Simple... I Once Lived In A Fairly Liberal Village...

And they decided that they would not put out ashtrays next to the Garbage cans, as they had previously done, because they wanted to discourage smoking.

Then...

They got pissed because people were putting them out in the gutter... creating litter.

What they hadn't thought about, apparently, was that smokers did not want to use trash cans as their ashtrays in a village made mostly of wood... because... FIRE.

So they tossed them on the cobblestones, where it would be safer.

[Sissyk]

33. Exactly!!

Most of the ones around here are pretty much trash cans with an ash tray on top.

Kinda like this

[Fumesucker]

15. Get caught throwing a butt you have to eat a pack of butts

[Renew Deal]

16. Death penalty

For first time offenders. There will be no second offense.

[kwassa]

19. arrest their sorry asses.

will anything less have an effect?

[Bonobo]

28. Here's a good way to make sure it continues:

Do NOT have ashtrays or cigarette receptacles anywhere.

Make people smoke as far away from any buildings or people as possible.

Tell them that their bodies, hair and clothes STINK.

Treat them as if they are diseased sociopathic wrongdoers.

Never give them the respect of offering a place to throw out their butts because that would be encouraging that filthy disgusting habit.

[MNBrewer]

30. $2/cigarette deposit on the butts.

Turn them in and get the $2 back.

[Capt. Obvious]

31. The government will just find a reason to keep that $2

[MNBrewer]

47. Good, then the government can use the money to pay people to clean up cigarette litter.

[Capt. Obvious]

48. Nice pipe dream

[kentauros]

45. Interesting that everyone is thinking of some form of punishment,

when the idea of a deposit on each butt is what came to mind for me, too. You'll always have smokers that just don't care about the deposit (same held true for those times long gone when we had a deposit on glass bottles.) Doesn't matter if there's a monetary incentive not to litter. Litterbugs (and "Litterbutts&quot just don't care.

So, here's a way to collect the butts (recent and older ones, because they don't break down in the environment) using the same kind of collection service you have for all those coin-sorting machines. And just like the coin machines (because you always have to have a corporate incentive to do the right thing) the vendor company would get their cut (from your store credit), and then you'd get the rest of that store credit instead of cash. Maybe get the remainder of your money in cash after you've bought within 25 cents of the total.

There always has to be an incentive, because corporations won't implement it at all without it, and the government will want to study it for the next five centuries before they even give the go-ahead on just making ten machines (for a trial run, in a select city.) However, the government would have to be the ones paying out for the butts, and unless it's attached to MIC pork projects, I'm not sure we'd ever see them doing that.

I would like to apply that concept to lottery tickets and scratch-offs, though. You'd probably discover a lot of that kind of litter disappearing after that

[GP6971]

32. My buyer

smokes and has a water bottle in his car where he disposes of his butts. He would never think of throwing a butt out of the car window. If walking in a public place, he fields strip it and throws the filter/residue in the garbage.

[Capt. Obvious]

34. We can fantasize about taking away their children

I got that idea from another DUer.

[Mariana]

41. We can also fantasize

about permanently and painfully disfiguring their faces, or about simply killing them outright.

[The Straight Story]

43. I wonder what they would say if a pregnant woman smoked? Take away her kid? Her body, their choice?

Pretty sure when it comes to some choices and rights there are some people who would throw out their principles in a ny minute.

[Little_Wing]

35. Butts are a persistent and disgusting issue in Santa Cruz but we are making progress

The beaches here (and everywhere, I'm sure) are filled with discarded cigarettes, but Save Our Shores are taking proactive steps to give smokers an alternative to spoiling the sand.

Within a few months of installation, the BaitTanks have decreased cigarette butt litter by an average of 50-70%! On the Santa Cruz Wharf, a 60-77% decrease in littered cigarette butts has been reported where the first BaitTanks were installed, and in Capitola, a 43-60% decrease has been reported.

http://www.saveourshores.org/what-we-do/reducing-cigarette-litter.php

[Generic Brad]

36. Brand their foreheads with a red, hot poker if we catch them

I volunteer for red, hot poker duty.

[Chuuku Davis]

37. Easy

Ban cigarettes

[The Straight Story]

39. Why just those - I see plates, paper bags, newspapers all over the place here

We went out to eat earlier today and you can notices that crap all over the place right now - which is another reason to be thankful spring will be here and the leaves will cover much of it (yes, low lying shrubs, darkness from tree cover, etc help cover roadside trash).

Not having a car right now I walk places. All along the road here are old CD's, beer cans, litter of all type imaginable - and you want to focus just one small item out of the thousands?

Littering is already a crime - how about we get police to spend time enforcing the laws we already (and maybe stop bothering with some other ones)?

[RobinA]

42. When I Walk

I find that beer cans are by far the most frequent form of litter. I assume it's because people don't want to be riding around with an open container once they have emptied them.

Ban beer, I say. Then throw the beer drinkers in jail after fining them. That should work very well indeed. I don't drink beer, so no one should.

[CreekDog]

44. please don't blame everyone who doesn't smoke or drink for the litter of said materials

[RobinA]

40. Ashtrays?

They are these receptacles that used to be put around for people to put butts in. Think trash can, but smaller with maybe some sort of sandy material to prevent fires. The sand isn't a must.

This problem was solved long ago, but the solution seems to have been lost in all the moralizing.

[taught_me_patience]

46. Shame them. n/t

[Inkfreak]

49. Gum, too. I see it everywhere. (nt)