Have you ever seen a whale smoke a cigarette?
How great is it when inspiration simply jumps up and taps you on the shoulder...It happened to me today. I had been driving around aimlessly enjoying my first Saturday off in a long time. I stopped for a coffee and a bite to eat and took a walk in the park also. I was thinking about a steemit post on the way home when out of the blue it struck me...
Well, to be honest it struck the ground, tumbling end over end landing in an explosion of tiny sparks flicked out of a car window by the nicotine-stained fingers of a smoker. That's right, today's post is inspired by littering, and more specifically cigarette-butt littering.
I'm not sure what makes someone think it's ok to flick the remains of their cigarette onto the street, in a garden bed or anywhere other than an ashtray or bin, or some other such appropriate place. Of course, littering isn't limited to cigarette butts however the blame for cigarette butt-littering can, 100 percent of the time, be laid at the feet of one distinct group of people: Smokers.
Cigarette butt littering is disgusting, callous, disrespectful and has implications for humans and animals.
Firstly, the butts are washed into stormwater drains and subsequently into waterways and oceans. They then proceed to leach toxic chemicals like cadmium, lead and zinc. That's bad ok?
Secondly, marine and birdlife mistake the butts for food. Again, that's bad ok?
Fact: None of these animals, or any animals at all for that matter, smoke cigarettes.
Thirdly, cigarette butts can take 12-15 years to break down due to their non-biodegradable nature and are responsible for about 10% of wildfires/bushfires in Australia. We know how devastating they can be: Loss of life, stock, property, homes, livelihoods etc. So once more, this is bad right?
How bad is the issue in Australia?
- Australian's discard about 32 billion cigarette butts a year
- The toxic waste from those butts total about 40,000 cubic meters of waste ending up in our rivers and bays
- Almost 78% of litter surveyed across central business districts are cigarette butts
- Clean up of cigarette butts cost about $1billion dollars each year
Koala living happily
Koala after a bushfire
I'm not an environmental crusader, nor do I judge people for smoking but when I see someone casually flick their cigarette butt without a thought in the world I certainly judge them. I judge them as a filthy littering asshole. The cigarette-butt littering population of the world is spread across every socio-economic demographic from young to old, working class to executives, rich and poor...How do the poor afford to buy them in the first place? I'm not sure. And it's not limited to the Australian continent. In a world where 52 trillion cigarette's are manufactured yearly 1 in 3 butts end up as litter.
I'm not really sure what this post is all about however I think it would be great, if you are a smoker, for you to responsibly dispose of your cigarette butts rather than flick them at the feet of others, or out the car window. Show some respect for your fellow human beings and if that doesn't work for you, have some respect for your family and your friends. It's not ok to litter anything be it a fast food wrapper, a take-away coffee cup and certainly not a cigarette butt. Have some self respect and use the bin.
Oh, and lastly, for the smokers...Try giving up the habit.
Thanks for reading
Images sourced from: wallpaperscraft.com, androidpit.com, wildlandfire.com, animals.nationalgeographic.com
Terrific post as always Galen - a shame you are not getting the type of monetary reward you should be mate. SirKnight (as TA) Resteemed.
Thanks heaps for the RS SK. Yeah, I've noticed the voting has been down. Oh well, I'll keep posting and see what happens.
The 32 billion cigarette butt being disposed made my eyes pop up, that's a lot of money going up in smoke (yeah, pun intended).
Apart from the obvious environmental impact, that's a lot of money wasted that could've been put to good use, no offense to the smokers in the house.
Hi @bitfairy, thanks for reading and commenting. :)
You are welcome
Great post @galenkp. Well researched and shocking stats. I dont smoke but I know many oeople who do. I know smoking is a hard habit to break, but binning a butt is an easy habit to have. Thanks for putting in the time to write this.
Thanks @bmj I have friends who are also smokers and understand how hard quitting can be. It's such an addictive thing. What I don't understand is the littering hence my post. The government put a lot of tax-payers money into anti-smoking campaigns and then banks millions and millions of dollars in cigarette tax money! A dichotomy. I'd like to see some more effort into anti-littering. Anyway, thanks for your comments and for reading. :)
"Nobody likes a litterbug or a thief." Ive told this to my boys since they were too little to understand the words. However, years ago I read about a study done on how the birds have adapted to use the discarded ciggerett buts in their nests to prevent lice. So, the birds in the city have a plentiful supply. They're happy birds. But the birds in the rural areas are lacking in this bug repelling nest liner. I live in a rural area, and Im a smoker, so I could help our birds if I would just donate my ciggerett butts to the environment when I'm finished with them instead of collecting the stinky things in my pocket all day long. At first, I thought thats simple. But apparently theirs something wrong in my brain. I would put out the cherry on my pants leg like always and throw down the butt for the birds, but end up feeling like an a** hole for littering up the place and go back over and pick it up again. Then feel bad for those poor itchy birds. I have managed to overcome some of the crazy, early in the spring when I think of those poor naked babies all itchy and covered in bugs and leave a few butts about. But probably not enugh to help much. So, now I have outdoor ashtrays on the way into the house to donate some of the butts back to the birds, but most birds are too shy to come up and get them that close to people. I do have happy porch birds tho.
So, your post came across as pretty angry about the litter bugs and their ciggerett buts. I can't blame you for that , Nobody likes a litter bug. But maybe next time you see someone flick one out there, like the world is only here for them and the rest of us are put here to clean up after and take care of them alone, you can take comfort in the fact that some struggeling birdie mommy will come along greatfull for the donation to her itching and restless babies and gladly clean up after the butt littering bum. Unless you hate baby birds too, then just go ahead and be mad if it suits you.
Hi @brandylynn, I wonder what the birds did prior to about 1935 when the filtered cigarette was first introduced? My post has nothing to do with hating birds as you insinuate, and everything to do with littering, and in particularly, cigarette-butt littering. I appreciate your point of view of course, however, as my post points out there are environmental issues with the toxins released from discarded cigarettes. I think birds have survived a long time prior to the invention of filtered (or any) cigarettes and will continue to do so even if cigarette's magically disappeared. No littering should be tolerated. Oh, and for the record, I don't hate birds, just littering assholes.
I hope There are "filthy littering asshole" on steemit Who Waste Their steemit earning on smoking .
great and important post - thanks!