Media works to banish cigarette butts (#1 most littered item)

[onehandle]

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

In recent years, the town also has given pedestrians a not-so-charming sight: cigarette butts galore. They have clogged sidewalk crevices and brickwork, cluttered tree wells, and collected in doorways. As smokers increasingly have been chased outside, the problem has flared.

Now, taking up the same fight as Philadelphia, Ardmore and Whitemarsh Township, Media is battling butts by trying to change smokers' behavior. Its arsenal includes pocket ashtrays (metal-lined containers that can hold five butts for later disposal), sleek ash urns at key locations, and catchy public service messages ("Your Butt Belongs Here" atop pictures of receptacles).

Initial results from Media's butt-banishing campaign look promising. At the program's start last fall, the number of stubs in a two-block area totaled 1,620 (yes, someone counted). One month into the campaign, the tally fell by one-third, to 1,081, still leaving a lot of stubs underfoot.

Cigarette debris is the most littered item, according to Bronwen Evans, a program manager at Keep America Beautiful, a Connecticut-based nonprofit. The group began its Cigarette Litter Prevention Program in 2002 and expanded it last year to 80 communities, including Media, Ardmore and Whitemarsh. Philadelphia signed on in 2006.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/philadelphia/20080325_Media_works_to_banish_cigarette_butts.html

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. Could it be because 95% of public ashtrays have disappeared?

It works the same way with trash cans... can't use them if there aren't any.

[DS1]

6. no. I see people flicking butts right over garbage cans all the time

and those oasis thingies are just about completely ignored as well.

[Jed Dilligan]

45. It's not safe to throw a recently-lit cigarette into a garbage can

Even if it's been stubbed out it could still be smoldering and ignite other trash.

[onehandle]

8. Stop at Any intersection with a left turning lane. Look along the curb.

There will be tons of butts along there.

Tossing butts anywhere is breaking the law.

[iaviate1]

25. Who cares about the law?

I don't want to see that garbage in our cities. And who knows what happens when they go into the sewage systems.

[onehandle]

27. I know. They clog drainage and cause sewers to back up into cities.

Peek into any drain as you walk down the street.

Ask a sewer worker.

[LanternWaste]

12. I dunno...

I dunno. I see people flicking butts onto the ground directly adjacent to ash trays quite often.

I think I myself need to concentrate a little more on getting my own butts in the proper place too...

[Viva_La_Revolution]

43. I've been pocketing mine for years... ever since I found out how long it takes them to decompose.

strip the tobacco out, pocket the filter for later disposal. It won't take long to become a habit, just like flicking it away is now. :)

I wonder if so many smokers are tossing them on the ground as a passive-aggressive response to society shunning them the last several years? :shrug:

[LanternWaste]

47. Probably just being lazy and inconsiderate

"I wonder if so many smokers are tossing them on the ground as a passive-aggressive response to society shunning them the last several years"

Probably just being lazy and inconsiderate as have I for so long. Difficult for me to imagine the scenario where John Butts tosses his on the ground because he can't smoke at Chili's.


Anyway, I hope before field stripping a smoke becomes a habit, I simply get rid of the addiction-- problems solved all the way around that way...

[harmonicon]

2. "As smokers increasingly have been chased outside, the problem has flared."

ummm..... no shit? I think the next step will be be imprisoning smokers, or just physically assaulting them (this has happened to me). God, I need to find a country where smokers are welcome. I just wish I didn't hate China.

[Fedja]

4. Japan

Look into it :)

[LynneSin]

5. Is it too much to ask not to litter

At least Media is doing something that will catch on to other towns.

I get fed up cleaning up the cigarette butts off my sidewalk. And I get paranoid when there is a drought going on like last fall - those butts are tossed into a pile of dry leaves and *poof* got us a nice fire going. Although it has not happened at my current address, I did have a neighbor deal with small fire from a passerby ditching a ciggie butt. Fortunately it was dealt with before it got to close to the house.

And stop with the 'Oh I'm so persecuted in these United States' bit. No one forced you to take up smoking that was your personal choice to pollute your body with additional chemicals above and beyond what all of us deal with each day.

[harmonicon]

10. I like you, so I'll be nice

I am very conscientious about not littering. If there is an ashtray or a trash can, I put my butts in there, and if I'm somewhere nice, like a wilderness area, I'll keep my cig butts in my pocket until I can put there somewhere else.

As far as me not being persecuted, tell that to the guy who punched me while I was smoking outside next to a public ashtray, because the smoke was moving in his direction. Repeat, I was standing next to an ashtray, and he wanted me to move. I refused, and he punched me.

[LanternWaste]

14. Sounds more like a problem with the guy himself rather...

Sounds more like a problem with the guy himself rather than your own act of smoking.

If we're including anecdotal evidence, I've been smoking for over twenty years and never been assaulted.

I simply don't understand the righteous-victim role we're always playing as smokers... we smoke. It's bad for us, It's bad for those around us. It costs us. It costs the state. There's no one good thing about it, yet we're defending it as though puffing up was a guaranteed right of humanity written in the constitution or etched in the ten commandments.

[harmonicon]

19. I think it is a right in the constitution....

..... and I see all of the efforts to curb smoking as an effort to completely ban it. Some will say this isn't the case, but others are far more open about it. While it may have a slight effect on those immediately next to a smoker (which should be their choice), it doesn't affect others the way many other things, which are deemed completely acceptable, do. Every time that someone who gets their electricity from a coal-fired power plant turns on a light, it's a big "fuck you" to you, me and the whole earth, yet I see far less concern about that than I do smoking. Also, cigarette butts may be unsightly litter, but I'll take cigarette butts on the street over landfills full of plastic bags and packing materials any day (out of sight, out of mind, I guess).

[LanternWaste]

48. there's a cost-benefit analysis for burning coal...

"It's a big "fuck you" to you, me and the whole earth, yet I see far less concern about that than I do smoking"

A-- there's a cost-benefit analysis for burning coal. None for our addiction.

B-- I see the concern for smoking/second-hand smoke/littering with butts as a mere part and parcel of the overall concern for Environmentalism.

From where I sit, I see much more concern, regulations, laws, mandates, opinions and social mores for the appropriate stewardship of the planet than I do for smoking. Maybe we as smokers simply dramatize anything we hear re: smoking.

[LynneSin]

28. Look, I can't do anything about assholes like that

Even I'll stand in your corner when people pull shit like that. But the generic whining that I've seen in general - well it gets old. No one was forced to start this, perhaps if you mentioned the punch first I wouldn't be as harsh.

And thank you for your consideration with littering - I wish more people were like you.

[Bluenorthwest]

26. why are piles of dry leaves laying around

in a fire hazard zone? They should not be. Seriously.

In SoCal, dig this, taking a shower is the same as smoking a pack of cigs, in terms of the pollution to your body.
I want them to make alcohol illegal as I don't drink and all of those bloody deaths on the highway are a tad much to put up with for your personal choice. Dead babies, that is the result of drinking, and all drinkers are killers. Don't talk to me about personal freedom, talk to the Mom whose infant is murdered so some driver could enjoy what you drinkers call 'Happy Hour' where drivers are encouraged to drink more via discounts and free salty foods, valet parking free with validation, may I bring your car around sir? Have you seen all of those beer bottles and can by the side of the road? Have you? Butts biodegrade, the containers of the lushes just sit there.
If you drink outside of your own home, I see you as a baby killing freak. Sorry to hear about your pal's fire, want to hear about my cousin Patti, who was killed by an alchohol user, on her 18th birthday, moments after her boyfriend proposed marriage, he lived because her body broke his fall. Is there a bottle of any kind of alchohol in your home? I think the cops should bust you for that. The stuff kills innocents, daily, clearly and directly. I'm sick of the stink of drunks, and of drinks, and seeing pregnant women swill the stuff down is revolting, but they do it, knowing all about fetal alcohol syndrome and everything.
Yeah, cigs are the worst. Worse than drunk drivers and cluster bombs and a nation that disciminates with glee and abandon. Why are the the worst? Why, because you are bothered by them of course, and you are the center of the world. Is it ok if I have another cup of coffee, Gandma?

[LynneSin]

29. Lovely, the old 'Drinking & Driving' scenario - btw, it doesn't work in this case

In a nutshell it's illegal to drink and drive. I don't know about your state, but in my state of Delaware and even in the neighboring states near us (IE MD, PA, NJ)not only is it illegal to drive drunk BUT they'll ticket you if you drive buzzed (ie you register on the breatilizer but not over the legal limit). But just like how some assholes will still smoke in public non-smoking areas just the same with assholes getting behind the wheel of the car and driving. I suppose that's why on St. Patty's day I could see the flash of the red lights from my bedroom window where the police had a checkpoint setup for drunk drivers (I live in the city within WALKING distance of some great bars).

Oh, and guess what, my college roommate was killed by a DUI so I suppose we all have our sad stories to tell but you talk about baby killing....

Not like they don't smoke while pregnant.

And oh, if you want to share sad stories of people who died I'll be happy to go thru the gory details of watching my father rot away before my eyes thanks to the lung cancer he had at age 41. The man was a smoker since he was a kid and you can't blame the enviroment - he grew up in the sticks of Pennsylvania with plenty of fresh air. No 14 year-old kid should have to deal with something that traumatic but oh, you smoke so I guess I should just STFU and deal with it because you have an ADDICITION. And yes, I drink, last time was about 2 months ago - when was YOUR last cigerette?

[newburgh]

15. Taking responsibility for disposing of smokers' garbage is now the

public's job?!?!?! Not understanding that people around you may not enjoy breathing in your smoke or may be allergic to it AND affect their health is bad enough...

[harmonicon]

21. Did I say that it was the public's job?

No, I didn't, but you just wanted to insult smokers and will jump to any conclusion you want to do so. Ever drive a car, or buy anything ever (things we buy have to be moved to where we buy them)? Ever use electricity produced by burning fossil fuels? If the answer to all of these things is 'no', maybe I'll take your point. Otherwise, you can fucking shove it, because I don't want to breathe that shit in that you've produced.

[SoCalDem]

30. Tahiti...

they have ashtrays on buses & in elevators.. no smoking-nazis there..

[LeftyMom]

46. Or you could stop poisoning everybody unfotunate enough to be in your vicinity?

Just a thought.

[LynneSin]

3. I like your sig-line! I am the same exact way too!

:D

[onehandle]

7. With the everlasting primary, DU should set up a support group for the Many DUers who feel this way.

I get that comment about my signature all the time.

Fixed the source. Thanks.

[Stuckinthebush]

9. The butts that make me angry

...are ones I see on hiking trails in the middle of the woods.

WTF?

[dysfunctional press]

16. cathedral lake in yosemite's backcountry...

4 miles in, 9000 ft. altitude...and the place was littered with ciggy butts.
disgusting.

[Stuckinthebush]

22. What is the mindset?

How does a person justify throwing their butt in such a pristine place?

Don't get me started on the fire hazards.

I've yelled at a hiker before to pick up their damn butt. Assholes.

[goddess40]

11. St. Maarten

While sitting on a beautiful beach in St. Maarten I put my hand down into the sand and pulled up a handful of cigarette filters. This happens every where on the beach. They don't biodegrade. Disgusting.

[onehandle]

34. 34% of beach pollution is cigarette butts.

Nasty.

http://www.preventcigarettelitter.org/files/understanding.html

[elocs]

13. There are smokers who would not throw a gum wrapper on the ground,

but who have no trouble tossing their cigarette butts wherever they may land. People must smoke outside where I work and they will pathetically congregate outside the entrance in below zero weather to smoke. There is a special container outside each entrance for the butts, but there are also cigarette butts all over the ground. So what's the problem, they can't manage to get them into the container a few feet away? Probably 90% of the litter on the ground is cigarette butts.

[Bandit]

17. Smokers have no concern for the environment they live in.

Smoke is every bit as much "litter" as butts are. They don't care that they litter the air with their filthy smoke so why should they care that they litter the streets with their filthy butts? In fact they DEMAND the "right" to litter.."Smoker's rights" what a joke...

[High Plains]

35. Christ, what an insulting generalization!

Fucking grow up.

[Winterblues]

36. delete

[asteroid2003QQ47]

37. Right on, Bandit! n/t

[Fedja]

38. Sorry for polluting.

I suppose you ride a bike to work?

[RadiationTherapy]

44. Another vote for you

to grow up.

Good for a laugh, though.

[notadmblnd]

18. Bull shit! I say chewing gum is the most littered item.

go ahead, take a look. Everywhere you walk there's those disgusting black circles. And if it's recently spit out, on a hot summer day and you step on it, it can ruin your car upholstery, not to mention a nice pair of shoes. How many butts of others have ruined cars? I say scrape the shit up, collect the DNA and start rounding and imprisoning these gum wad litterers.

[pleah]

20. Oh, this is sooo much more important than,

4,000 dead soldiers, over 1,000,000 dead Iraqis, over 5,000,000 orphans, and another war on the way!:sarcasm:

[Stuckinthebush]

23. I don't recall the OP saying that

I would bet my yearly salary that the OP would agree with you.

There are many other things going on in the world. This is one of them. It is OK to discuss other things in the midst of discussing the horrors in Iraq.

[Winterblues]

32. 4000 dead is only four days of dead caused by tobacco

I don't seem to get a feel of the same outrage from you.. 4000 dead soldiers in five years compared to 400,000 dead every single year from tobacco related causes.:shrug:

[Stuckinthebush]

24. I would like to point out...

Although I'm not a smoker, I know many who are very considerate and abhor the flicking-butt ritual. I know one smoker who will pick up other butts he sees.

With any lifestyle choice comes assholes. There are assholes in the smoking world but also many who aren't.

Just saying.

[LynneSin]

31. I would like to think more communities would be like Media

and more would be like your friend.

There's a beach in Delaware that's ready to ban all smoking on the boardwalk & beach area NOT because of health issues but the sheer amount of money they spend picking up butts and keeping the beach clean. Perhaps if the asshole smokers took care of their trash smokers in general wouldn't be facing this ban.

[napi21]

33. It's a great idea to bring back the ash urns! I have already made sure the hot ash was gone

and just put the butt into my pocket until I found a trash can or some proper place to dispose of it, but that's a real PIA.

They could also add a line to their ad saying something like "Your butts in here or you won't have any", or something clever like the "Click it or Ticket" program they have for mandatory use of seat belts. I really believe most smokers would properly disposes of their butts if they had a place to do so, but the others who just don't care need a bit of encouragement.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

39. legalize pot

and the problem is solved :smoke:

[Withywindle]

40. Pocket ashtrays need to get trendy.

Empty Altoids tins are the best.

I'm horrified by the idea of dropping a butt in the woods or anywhere pretty. I admit I am less conscientious at home in Chicago because, hello, already filthy. But I definitely look to see if there's a public ashtray or trash can around.

[Evoman]

41. Huh? People STILL smoke?

Damn.

[onehandle]

42. I don't get it.

I don't do Meth either.

[yorgatron]

50. when i joined the army and went to basic training they made us pick up cigarette butts.

i took up smoking unfiltered instead of having to put the butts in my pocket.
later i switched to rolling my own,since it was cheaper,plus they tasted better.
now i smoke cigars.
they take a little longer to grind up,but better than butts.

[varkam]

49. I smoke.

I'm smoking right now, and you'd never know it unless I told you :D

[WritingIsMyReligion]

51. I know, right?

Learn something new every day.

[flvegan]

52. There are a lot of lazy, inconsiderate slobs out there. Some of them smoke.

People litter. They push their shopping cart behind (or into) another person's car. Just a fact.

The people that litter their butts that piss me off are the ones that toss them from their car. First, nice fucking fire hazard asshole. Second, your car HAS an ashtray.