Smoking

[emmagleb]

Why is it 'ok' for people to drop cigarette ends in the street, or throw them out of car windows? For the amount of people that do it, surely they think its their right?!?!?!

If you are one of those people who drop your dog ends, why do you do it?

[Loosehead]

Not an answer but I too have wondered that, It does seem that somehow smoking paraphenalia are exempt from litter laws and general attitude.

[Scotman84]

Or fast food cartons, or any other form of litter for that matter... obviously an anti-smoker.

Step on a cigarette end and that's all you do, step on dog s**t or chewing gum then trail it over your house carpets.....

Which would you prefer !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[heathfield]

It's not OK. In many towns and cities in the UK throwing away a cigarette end nowadays can result in a �50 fine.

[maggie01]

If I have to pick up after my dogs (which I do), then I don't see why people can't pick up their cigarette ends. It may not tread anything on your feet, but it still makes the place look scruffy.

[Drunkle-Tron]

Well if you are picking up after your dog it wouldn't be too much trouble to pick my cigarette end up at the same time would it?
go on you know you want to!

[bigredsshop]

It's never okay to throw butt's anywhere. I am a smoker and I field strip all my butt's by pinching off the cherry and discarding the butt into a trash container.!!

[Buenchico]

As Heathfield indicates, many councils are now using their powers to hand out on-the-spot fines to people who drop cigareete ends. Some councils only use uniformed staff but other employ plain-clothes teams to, for example,wait at bus stops and watch for people dropping litter.

Councils which have a zero-tolerance policy on litter include Edinburgh:
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id =456322006
Clacton (Tendring):
http://www.tendringdc.gov.uk/TendringDC/Counci l/Press+Release/BinThatButtOrFaceaFine.htm
Carlisle:
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/unknown/viewartic le.aspx?id=395860
Wigan:
http://www.wiganworld.co.uk/stuff/yoursay.php? topic=1&opt=yoursay
Lewes:
http://www.lewestoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx? SectionID=509&ArticleID=1689802
Glasgow:
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5030454. html
and many, many more. Check out the news stories, here, for some examples, including how dropping a match cost a Liverpool man �135:
http://www.ciggybins.co.uk/morebutts.php

Chris

[lady_p_gold]

Every time I see it I supress an urge to pick it up and give it back to the person, do they not realise that someone else has got to pick it up eventually, or our tax payers money has to go on cleaning up all these cigarette ends and gum all over the pavements. To me it is just as bad as dropping litter, but then lots of people do that too.

[joko]

scotman - litter is not about whether or not it causes a problem for your shoes if you tread on them!
your shoes are irrelevant!
it is about sh*tting up the roads and pavements with garbage - no matter how bit or small it is all litter.

people seem to thing that small items of litter are ok - because...well...they're only little aren't they? - well it all mountrs up and none of it is acceptable!!

[emmagleb]

I'd like to point out that I posted the question as a discussion, rather than to insult smokers. I don't smoke, but I'm not heavily against everyone who does.

If treading on a cigarette end is acceptable (more-so than dog poo), which is your opinion "Scotman84", is it acceptable for ALL rubbish to be dropped everywhere? Would you like to see the rubbish bins empty and the pavement full?

The emphasis on cigarette butts in this question was to ask why litter is unacceptable, but cigarette ends are ok to drop everywhere. I'm fed up of people throwing them out of car windows (like cars don't all have ashtrays!) and dropping them in the street. I suppose the same does go for chewing gum - it appears that people are happy to drop that but, funnily enough, not the wrapper.

[emmagleb]

AND "Drunkle-tron".....

Why should everyone else clear up after you?!?!?!

[angeldraws]

The muppets are clearly shown.......

i agree with emma & joko -

and scotman is so kind to offer a choice of preference....... awwwwwww chewing gum, dog sh1t or a ciggy butt - ooooooooooooooohhhh ha ha ha

[maggie01]

Drunkle-Tron. If I smoked I would pick them up. I don't smoke. Have tried it when I was younger, but can't stand the smell.

[bednobs]

i absolutely hate it when people chuck them out of cars ... as a motorcyclist i have ahad a fag but in the face a few times, Your ignorance could cause me to crash into you and kill you because i cant see!

[Gef]

I am a smoker. In town I always drop my cigar end on the ground, stub it out and then pick it up and look for a bin. The problem in many parts of the UK is finding a bin!

I am recently back from New Zealand. The streets are not littered with anything because there are so many rubbish bins that there is always one in sight.

The droping of any kind of rubbish annoys me but local councils could help by providing (and emptying) more bins.

[Drunkle-Tron]

Hi
Sorry just thought you could multi task

[g7vgg]

Gef, the reason why there is'nt that many bins about these days in the UK is for sercurity reasons...Its very easy for a terrorist to drop a bomb into a litter bin and detonate it by remote control, and if they choose a bin that happens to be in a heavily populated area, say in a market place crowded with people, a single bin-bomb could take out hundreds of people.
In fact after 9-11 thousands of bins were removed from busy city streets for exactly this reason...Many of them in London, the city with the highest population in the UK.
People dropping fag-butts is another issue. (For American readers that means cigarette butts!)
I used to smoke, a long time ago, but now I am virralently anti-smoking.
If smoking were totally banned there would'nt be any fag-butts to worry about, but as that will never happen (Because the British government make lots of money from smoking) its a problem we will just have to live with.

[Gef]

g7, the security argument about bins is just nonsense. It was just an excuse to remove bins from public places in order to save money on emptying them. There are no bins in Glasgow Central station yet just a few feet away on the streets outside there are bins. Unfortunately for the terrorists the bins are overflowing and there is no room for a bomb.

[beejaybee]

I`m a smoker & would not dream of throwing a cigarette out of a car window. There was a news item a few years back about a lit cigarette but thrown from a car & went into the car behind. I always put my butts in a bin when out the same as any litter. It`s not that big a deal to it.