Why do smokers leave their cigarettes on the ground when they are done? I am sure not all smokers do this? Today I observed this while sitting in my car waiting for my daughter after school. A man was outside leaning on his car smoking. He gets done, drops his cigarette to the ground, steps on it and gets in his car.
I often wonder about this?
I am NOT a smoker, my husband is not either. I do have friends who smoke, not in front of me or my kids.
I believe people have the right to smoke. I believe people have the right not to be around smoke, this is not the issue.
I just do not get why people who love to smoke do not take their mess with them when they are done? How many times do you see the streets litered with cigarette butts? How many times do you see people flick their cigarette butts out the window? If you love smoking so much why can't you keep it in the car?
Honestly this is not trying to start a deabate, just trying to understand.

By Sunny on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 03:32 pm:

Laziness

By Vicki on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 03:33 pm:

I have no idea why they do it...... likely the same reason people throw garbage out their window. They just don't care!!

By Colette on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 03:34 pm:

ditto sunny and vicki!

By Kate on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 04:19 pm:

You're lucky he stepped on it...I can't TELL you the number of times I see people just drop the lit and smoking cigarette on the ground and walk off. If I get started on this topic I won't stop....so I better leave now.

By Luvn29 on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 04:27 pm:

Me, too, Kate. I don't know how many times I have stepped on a cigarette to put it out, IN PARKS! That drives me crazy because I am terrified of one of the little ones running around getting ahold of it.

I honestly think they don't consider it littering, though I don't know how.

I knew someone who was impeccible when it came to keeping his yard clean and neat. But he would toss cigarette butts out in it. What?!?!

By Dawnk777 on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 06:54 pm:

That drives me crazy, too.

By Cocoabutter on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 07:42 pm:

I agree. It's like smokers honestly don't think it's littering.

MY mom, OTOH, always keeps her butts and throws them in the trash at home.

When we first moved into our first house I gave my dh holy heck for putting out his butts in the yard. (He quit smoking 4 years ago.) I said, "Who do you think is going to pick it up?"

I wonder if maybe some people just think that the butts decompose in the dirt. (They don't.)

By Bellajoe on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 08:18 pm:

I can't stand it either. I hate when the throw them out the car window. The other day I saw a man open his car door at a red light and start sweeping the butts, that had just fallen onto the floor of his car, onto the street with his bare hand. The devil in me just had to laugh, the floor of his car had to have gotten burned with those lit butts. I'm so mean.

I hate seeing them all over in the parks and parking lots.

By Jelygu on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 08:06 am:

My mom smokes standing at her back door, so that
her house won't smell bad. (well, it still does, but not to her) Now, she is still inside the house, and she has an ashtray right there in case she needs to put it down for a second, but when she is done, she throws it out the door. There is a pile of hundreds of butts on the ground outside her backdoor. It looks horrible!

By Luvn29 on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 11:20 am:

I tease my sil because she won't smoke in the house and she gets furious when her fil sneaks and smokes in her house. She says she doesn't want that smell in her house! I say, but you don't care to put it into your lungs?

By Imamommyx4 on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 08:29 pm:

The hospitals in this area are going to smoke-free campuses by June 2008. I can't wait.

I've seen people stand outside the doors at work, finish and throw down a butt. AND there was an smokestand withing 2 feet of them. Now I really don't get that.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, November 9, 2007 - 12:28 am:

Okay, supposedly the clinic where I work has a smoke-free campus, so tell the patients who stand outside the door and smoke anyway, despite the signs telling them they shouldn't. I don't feel comfortable confronting strangers about their smoking habits, so I just suck it up and walk in. My co-workers feel the same way. Ugh.

By Luvn29 on Friday, November 9, 2007 - 07:23 am:

When I worked at the hospital as an administrative assistant, my office was right beside the employee entrance. Patients could come out of it, but it locked for security reasons, and you couldn't get back in without your employee i.d. (it was right by the CEO and CFO offices). The hospital hadn't gone smokefree yet, so there were designated areas to smoke, and that wasn't one of them. There was a huge no smoking sign, but that didn't matter. Patients, mostly mothers in labor because we were near the OB ward, would come out, block the door, and stand there smoking and throw their butts down. One of my jobs was informing them that due to security reasons, they could not block those doors. I hated that part of my job!

By Kate on Friday, November 9, 2007 - 09:36 am:

Mothers in labor were taking smoking breaks?!?! Or am I reading that wrong?

By Sandysmom on Friday, November 9, 2007 - 10:14 am:

What i find infuriating is when people throw their lit butts out of their moving car. Twice, I have been behind someone who has done that and the butt actually flew back and hit my widshield. Grrrrrr!

By Luvn29 on Friday, November 9, 2007 - 08:32 pm:

Yep, Kate, you read it completely correctly! Mothers in labor hauling their I.V. poles out with them to smoke. One that I remember well was in the hospital because she was having some preterm contractions while pregnant with twins. Ugh!