• Doctor xNo@r.nfEnglish
    0·
    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
      0·
      1 year ago

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

      • Obi@sopuli.xyz
        0·
        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
          0·
          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
    0·
    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
      0·
      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.

      • limelight79@lemm.ee
        0·
        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
          0·
          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
          0·
          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
            0·
            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.

      • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        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.

  • Reken@lemmy.world
    0·
    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.

  • drathvedro@lemm.ee
    0·
    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.

  • lameJake@feddit.de
    0·
    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.

  • ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world
    0·
    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.

    • Resistentialism@feddit.ukEnglish
      0·
      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.

        • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.caEnglish
          0·
          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

      • Xanthrax@lemmy.world
        0·
        1 year ago

        Suck in the cached bowl and pour the bong out when you’re done smoking. You don’t have to use the lighter the entire time when you’re smoking the bowl. Leave it cherried, and when it goes out, suck it into the bong. You will have to clean your bong more often.

  • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
    0·
    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
        0·
        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.

  • Feydaikin@beehaw.org
    0·
    1 year ago

    Lol, I think the problem goes way beyond smokers.

    But if you want to be the guy that singles out one small group of people to antagonize in a sea of sinners, I’m not gonna stop you.

  • baremetal@lemmy.ml
    0·
    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.