• Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
    1124·
    1 year ago

    I was in a national park this past weekend. Beautiful scenery, gorgeous vistas, and the clearest air anyone could ask for.

    Until some jerkass decided it was the perfect time to light up on the trail and then flick his cigarette into the woods. During fire season. Fucking asshole.

    • BruceTwarzen@kbin.social
      342·
      1 year ago

      I was at some remote sea the other week. Pretty long, steep hike that took me like 3 hours. I just thought that this was probably the moste remote and beautiful place that i have ever seen, and still, there were cigarette buds scattered along the path.

  • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
    995·
    1 year ago

    Addiction or not, someone who doesn’t put their trash where it belongs is disgusting scum.

    Especially when that trash can start a fire.

  • drathvedro@lemm.ee
    292·
    1 year ago

    You don’t realize how scarce trash cans there are until you start smoking.

    That’s why I became enlightened and switched to vaping. Now I can stop worrying about trashcans and just pour chemicals straight into the ground (and into my own pockets). 256 IQ move right there, so smart it overflows back to 0.

    • avapa@lemmy.world
      16·
      1 year ago

      When I was still smoking I had a pocket ashtray. Saw them in some random anime a couple of years back and then bought one.

    • ComradeChairmanKGB@lemmygrad.ml
      139·
      1 year ago

      I see piles of cigarette butts a foot away from trash cans all the time. Smokers are too lazy and too stupid to extend their arm before dropping them.

          • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
            23·
            1 year ago

            A trash can will hold all kinds of inflammable material, so no. Fuck anyone who puts their cigarette butts in anything but an ash tray specifically made for this purpose.

            • hackris@lemmy.ml
              2·
              1 year ago

              I mean, if you dip it in water or make sure it’s not burning/warm to the touch when you throw it out, no harm can be done. I do agree with you about burning cigarette butts though.

              • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
                22·
                1 year ago

                If only people would do at least that. I saw it first hand, maybe that’s why it angers me so much. Prevented a forest fire by sheer luck of being at the right place, at the right time.

                Hiked up a hill on vacation, chilling, having a great time, when my friend suddenly points at a trash can saying: Uh, is that thing smoking?

                Middle of the woods, that trash can was tied to a fucking tree, too. We sacrificed the water we brought with us and notified whoever was to notify. One hour later and it might’ve been too late.

                Dear smokers:
                CIGARETTE BUTTS BELONG IN AN ASH TRAY MADE FOR DISPOSING OF CIGARETTE BUTTS, AND NOWHERE ELSE.

                TAKE A PORTABLE ASH TRAY WITH YOU, IF YOU INTEND TO SMOKE WHILE BEING OUT AND ABOUT. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE.

                • hackris@lemmy.ml
                  3·
                  1 year ago

                  Yeah man, those people are pieces of shit. I also extunguished many burning trash cans in my time.

                  That’s why, back when I used to smoke, I had to be 100% sure the cigarette was not even warm (by touching the end with my finger) before throwing it out.

    • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      1 year ago

      I just shoved them back in the pack after scrapping off the cherry if I needed to. It made it smell bad, but didn’t really change the taste of the other smokes.

  • Reken@lemmy.world
    22·
    1 year ago

    My boss literally wanted me to clean up cigarettes that him and several other workers threw on the ground constantly. Keep in mind there’s a cigarette trash can that’s right outside but no one cares to use it. Needless to say, I said fuck no and he didn’t argue lmao.

  • baremetal@lemmy.ml
    222·
    1 year ago

    smoking is a beautifully executed tax on people via addiction. They created a product they cloak in the terminology of freedom and history, loaded with additional addictive chemicals and pushed it on our youth years ago. It’s not bad enough to kill you or your ability to “produce” but the odds are good it will kill you before you can collect social security and will act as a daily tax as its marked as a luxury good. It’s disgusting for all kinds of reasons that have nothing to do with the filter or the smell.

  • lameJake@feddit.de
    171·
    1 year ago

    I can’t really comprehend how it got so accepted. Why don’t we punish this behaviour sufficiently if it is observed. Something like 12h of picking up filters would be quite fitting.

  • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
    216·
    1 year ago

    Let me just add the following:

    Many smokers never even think about it. It’s the most normal thing in the world to them to just flick their cigarette anywhere. It’s so engrained in their brains that it’s okay to do so, which is the main part of the problem.

    Just calling them out on it to make them aware can be a great start.

      • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
        51·
        1 year ago

        That can sadly happen, yeah. I only do it when there’s enough other people around to hear and see it, which also puts extra pressure on them.

  • ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world
    162·
    1 year ago

    A reminder: the filters are basically plastic and will last forever.

    Say what you want about the rest, it’s filters which bother me the most.

      • ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world
        111·
        1 year ago

        Not sure about that list - they don’t “biodegrade”, but they do break down into microplastics, our favourite size of plastic these days.

        • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.caEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          Interesting.

          “cigarette filters take years to be broken down in the open”

          Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose_acetate

          Not that I doubted you at all, I just wanted to get a bit more detail. The whole article is rather interesting in how we’ve used CA as a society and what happens to it. In some cases, according to the above, the product can be biodegraded using cellulaise and exposure to 280nm or smaller wavelengths of light to promote the process; the cellulaise is only present in very bio-active soil, which isn’t common in places where smokers will be tossing their butts, the filter is usually protected by paper wrap, so even sitting in the open where it can be bombarded with direct sunlight, there’s going to be a significant delay before any UV can reach the CA in the filter.

          I’m extrapolating from the Wikipedia article for that last bit… but it’s logically sound. Between the difficulty of UV reaching the CA, plus the absence of any additional substances to aid in the degradation of the CA, it would take substantial time to degrade. Though it’s derived from either cotton or wood cellulose.

          It’s fascinating stuff.

          I’ve never regularly smoked cigarettes, and I’ve always had an issue with people just flicking their butts wherever they want. Now I have scientific information to support that discomfort, so thanks

    • Resistentialism@feddit.ukEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      See, that’s exactly why I don’t use an Ash tray or a bin.

      I don’t throw it on the ground either. I just swallow it. There is no need to worry about littering or finding somewhere for it that way.

  • irationslippers@lemmy.world
    13·
    1 year ago

    I totally agree with you re: disposing of the end of the cigs. But when you’re outside, do you have an issue with the ash aswell?

    • bleistift2@feddit.deOPEnglish
      27·
      1 year ago

      I do have a problem with the ash. But I’ll admit that it’s more a conscious one than the emotional antipathy I feel towards the buds. The buds you can at least pick up and discard. But once the ash is on the ground, the pollutants are irretrievably in the environment.

      • irationslippers@lemmy.world
        4·
        1 year ago

        Is it that much of a pollutant? Again just ash, I’m always pretty conscientious to dispose of my filter tips, but never thought the ash was a problem. Does it severely damage plant life? Is ashing in a concrete carpark more acceptable?

        Not trying to get facetious here, genuinely trying to find out more.

        • bleistift2@feddit.deOPEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          I couldn’t find anything scientific specifically about cigarette ash, so I’m just reasoning from common sense.

          Part of the problem of filter tips are heavy metals. I hypothesize that not all the metals are converted to gas and sucked into the filter while the cigarette is lit. Therefore there must be heavy metals remaining in the ash. These seep into the ground and ground water, whether the ash starts out on a parking lot or in a park.

          If that’s dangerous to plant life depends on the plants living there. Tobacco, for instance, seems to handle them well (that’s how the metals get into the ash in the first place: tobacco sucks them out of the ground). “[S]ensitive plants growing in sites with heavy metals exposure show altered metabolism, growth reduction, and reduced biomass production and reduced yield.” [1]

          https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-41552-5_4

          • irationslippers@lemmy.world
            1·
            1 year ago

            Okay, but are their heavy metals in the ash or just the tips? I use paper tips so I don’t think there is any heavy metal in them, but if it’s in the ash then that’s different. Thank you for looking into it tho.

  • Doctor xNoEnglish
    112·
    1 year ago

    Technically nature made us and in time we made plastic, so technically nature made plastic… This is all just nature’s fault! Kill it! 😬

    • Magnetar@feddit.de
      31·
      1 year ago

      I think smokers are unaware, that cigarette filters are plastic. Plastic full of environmental toxins.

      • Obi@sopuli.xyz
        7·
        1 year ago

        I don’t smoke cigarettes anymore but when I did I was fully aware that the tips were disasters in terms of how long they take to break down and their pollution impact, which is why I’d never throw them anywhere that wasn’t an ashtray or a bin.

        Now joints, I’ve felt free to when it’s just a bit of paper and organic matter that is pretty much already obliterated just by smooshing it with my shoe.

        • ccdfa@lemm.ee
          1·
          1 year ago

          I don’t smoke anymore either, but when I did I bought pure cotton filters that were biodegradable in case they left the bin somehow.

  • toaster@reddthat.com
    82·
    1 year ago

    All the smokers I know pocket their butts and toss them in the garbage later 🤷

    I guess they still ash their cigs on the ground, but I don’t really see ash as an issue. Maybe it is, but not to my knowledge

    • setVeryLoud(true);@lemmy.ca
      11·
      1 year ago

      Ash is not as much of an issue, the butts are toxic to wildlife.

      My experience is totally opposite, I don’t know a single smoker who disposes of their butts properly.

      • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        1 year ago

        I did when I smoked. I knew a few others who did as well (maybe only when I was around them idk). But yeah, the vast majority don’t give a fuck.

        I hate to say it, but these days it’s kind of a thing mostly underprivileged people do, and these people tend to have bigger problems than being socially and environmentally conscious.

      • limelight79@lemm.ee
        3·
        1 year ago

        I can’t speak to quantities or rates, but I see a LOT of cigarette butts on the ground. This meme is right on target, in my experience.

        My “favorite” was the time one threw their cigarette butt out the window of their car on a highway and it somehow ended up under the cowl of my windshield, so the smell was being sucked into my car by the ventilation system. And I couldn’t easily get in there to remove it - I needed tools I didn’t have on the road with me. At least it didn’t start a fire.

        • setVeryLoud(true);@lemmy.ca
          3·
          1 year ago

          That’s nasty, I have a nice burn hole in my jacket because someone tossed a lit cigarette out of their window and it landed in my jacket hoodie while riding a motorcycle.

        • Nurgle@lemmy.world
          2·
          1 year ago

          I’ve since quit, but me and my friends would dispose of our butts properly. The problem is like a single asshole can toss 20+ butts in a day. So it’s really obvious when people are shitheads, but you’ll basically never notice people are functioning members of society.

          • limelight79@lemm.ee
            2·
            1 year ago

            Yeah, that’s why I mentioned not knowing rates - I’m sure there are people who do the right thing with them, but the ones that don’t are the ones that are going to stand out.