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Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

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Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#61

Post by rleigh »

homero wrote: post #20
craigsmansion wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's because the butt is usually made to resemble some natural material like cork. Since the rest of it (paper, tobacco, and ashes) is easily degradable, I think the natural assumption is the butt is degradable as well, and the notion that every other smoker seems to think so isn't helping. So to answer the question: I suspect it's simply a lack of information. As a data point I'll add that I stopped deposing…

Yeah i thought it was biodegradable and thought they would melt away.

Cellulose acetate isn't biodegradable to any appreciable degree, and once it's soaked in tar and other toxins it's even less so.

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#62

Post by rorykoehler »

chrisseaton wrote: post #28
baddox wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying it’s inconsiderate for people to not smell how you want them to smell? I don’t think I have any right to expect other people to smell a certain way or to not have a detectable smell, barring obvious extreme cases of avoidable bad hygiene.

You know that smell is literally fumes that cause cancer, right? Any nobody said it was infringing on any rights - we said it was inconsiderate.

You never drove in a ICE vehicle, took a plane, used electricity or used electronics or any other industrially created goods?

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#63

Post by mcbits »

jessaustin wrote: post #56
homero wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah i thought it was biodegradable and thought they would melt away.

If they were biodegradable they wouldn't completely cover the shoulders of every road and highway.

Even not being biodegradable, they degrade in a couple of years and wouldn't cover the shoulders of every road if the supply wasn't constantly being replenished.

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#64

Post by vbuwivbiu »

woodruffw wrote: post #5

Only tangentially related, but I am continually astonished by the absence of any sort of social norms surrounding cigarette butt disposal. I have (otherwise environmentally conscious!) friends who smoke, and I've personally witnessed them flick their cigarettes into gutters and on streets. As a serious question, without judgment: are there any smokers on HN who can explain the phenomenon?

Unless people object to it, the behavior will continue. I'm that guy who'll tell someone who drops a cigarette butt to pick it up; to which the response is usually indignation or they ignore me, I figure at least I annoyed them.

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#65

Post by andybak »

JeanMarcS wrote: post #35
woodruffw wrote: post #5

Only tangentially related, but I am continually astonished by the absence of any sort of social norms surrounding cigarette butt disposal. I have (otherwise environmentally conscious!) friends who smoke, and I've personally witnessed them flick their cigarettes into gutters and on streets. As a serious question, without judgment: are there any smokers on HN who can explain the phenomenon?

A personal anecdote: when I was a student in CS, back in the early nineties, I was working in a gas station the WE. A fellow student, now leading IT department in a European airport, was visiting me and we were chatting outdoor, just nearby the little shop I was in to cash. And then he lights a cig. I asked him if he was ok doing that in a gas station, and he responds me something like well, we are far enough (and th…

(WE = weekend - I had to pause to parse that. Two letter abbreviations suck)

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#66

Post by raverbashing »

woodruffw wrote: post #5

Only tangentially related, but I am continually astonished by the absence of any sort of social norms surrounding cigarette butt disposal. I have (otherwise environmentally conscious!) friends who smoke, and I've personally witnessed them flick their cigarettes into gutters and on streets. As a serious question, without judgment: are there any smokers on HN who can explain the phenomenon?

It would be interesting to have a push for making it biodegradable, or who knows, maybe they can be recycled or just incinerated for energy

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#67

Post by TelmoMenezes »

chrisseaton wrote: post #9
woodruffw wrote: post #5

Only tangentially related, but I am continually astonished by the absence of any sort of social norms surrounding cigarette butt disposal. I have (otherwise environmentally conscious!) friends who smoke, and I've personally witnessed them flick their cigarettes into gutters and on streets. As a serious question, without judgment: are there any smokers on HN who can explain the phenomenon?

> are there any smokers on HN who can explain the phenomenon? Smokers aren't exactly known for their good judgement, manners and consideration for others in the first place, are they?

Your own comment doesn't display any of those traits.

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#68

Post by chrisseaton »

rorykoehler wrote: post #62
chrisseaton wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know that smell is literally fumes that cause cancer, right? Any nobody said it was infringing on any rights - we said it was inconsiderate.

You never drove in a ICE vehicle, took a plane, used electricity or used electronics or any other industrially created goods?

But I didn't claim anything about myself.

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#69

Post by seer »

seriousSmoker wrote: post #6
woodruffw wrote: post #5

Only tangentially related, but I am continually astonished by the absence of any sort of social norms surrounding cigarette butt disposal. I have (otherwise environmentally conscious!) friends who smoke, and I've personally witnessed them flick their cigarettes into gutters and on streets. As a serious question, without judgment: are there any smokers on HN who can explain the phenomenon?

Because we are trying to die, and simply do not give a fuck. Feed that into your facebook suicide watch/dark tetrad NLP algorithm, and use it as a political impetus for a smoking prohibition bill, and behavior modification after school program. Save the world from it’s final free thought. #YOLO

It is of course rational to throw trash when you don't give a fuck. The parent question is more about why people that do give a fuck otherwise, would flick and stomp their discarded cigarette buts.

The question is interesting precisely because it falls outside the output you would get from a heuristic algo of "good people don't litter", "bad people do".

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#70

Post by jyriand »

woodruffw wrote: post #5

Only tangentially related, but I am continually astonished by the absence of any sort of social norms surrounding cigarette butt disposal. I have (otherwise environmentally conscious!) friends who smoke, and I've personally witnessed them flick their cigarettes into gutters and on streets. As a serious question, without judgment: are there any smokers on HN who can explain the phenomenon?

You see every other smoker do it and you think, what’s the point? and you just throw it away. I can’t carry it in my pocket. If trashcan is in visible sight, I’m ok with walking little bit to get rid of it. But usually it’s the case that there isn’t any good way to dispose the sigaret butt. I remember when I started smoking I never littered the street, I took extra steps to get it into nearest trashcan, but three years later I have changed.
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