snowrooster

To say that because smokers don't care about their own bodies they couldn't possibly care about the environment is ridiculous. Smoking is an addiction and most smokers I know wish they had never started. Not all smokers litter (as a former smoker I always put my beach butts in a cup and threw them away). I guess that means overweight people can't be environmentalists either because clearly they don't care about their body? I think not. Let's try not to make such sweeping generalizations about others.

GoTravel

TripleSecDelay, I take offense to your statement:

"We can't expect people who have no regard for their own bodies to have any higher regard for the environment"

You could not be more wrong if you tried. Smoking is a drug addiction.

Nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs known to man.

I was a smoker for 24 years and kicked the habit almost 2 years ago.

It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.

Ask any smoker if they wish they could quit and 100% will tell you yes.

beachdreams

Patrick I highly applaud you. I wish everyone would throw their trash away, including their cigarette butts.

TripleSecDelay - I disagree with you. Both of parents were avid smokers and when we went to the beach, they put their butts in a cup and disposed of them at the end of the day. Never did they just leave them for someone to clean up after them.

GoTravel - I wish someone would work on the littering problem at Isle of Palms. We usually go hang out on the beach there during our yearly trip to Charleston and my husband has to patiently wait for me to find a clean spot to put our chairs down. By clean I mean, no cigarette butts (virutally hard to find a spot without those these days) and zero leftover trash from the idiots that think the beach is a public dumpster. I actually have been known to get a little loud around families that are letting their debris fly away or packing up their stuff and leaving the trash. When we go to the beach, we stay all day and bring food and drink. I collect all of our trash and dump it when we leave. It is not hard. It is just a shame to watch such a pretty area go to pot. We went to Folly for the day the last time we were there and I noticed it had the same problem. Not sure about Sullivans Island or the other areas.

GoTravel

We too take a trash bag to the beach with us every time we go.

I can't tell you the times I've ran down the beach chasing someone else's potato chip bag, cup, bag, etc.

I also am shocked at the amount of people on the beach with glass bottles. Whoa!

ed

Here in CA many of the beaches are non-smoking. I have no idea how well it is inforced but it is a start.

I am amused by the people that drive with their arm hanging out of the car holding a cigaret. :-B

GoTravel

This is kind of funny but I can't tell you how many times I've been on the beach and could smell someone smoking pot.

It has such a pungent unique smell and it reeks!

People think they are sneeky smoking a joint and you can immediately see who is smoking it from quite a ways away.

crazydazy

I agree wholeheartedly about cigarette butts and trash. In this day and age of road rage, aren't you taking a chance confronting people in their cars? If they are stupid enough to pollute, who knows what their reaction might be.

tieurown

Speaking of butts, I trust you're all planning to vote W's out of office November 2. Well, I realize FL is voting early and often, but for the rest of you, lets tell BWB to hasta lavista. Yes, this is travel - we can watch his butt travel out to the ranch for good.

beachdreams

Tieurown - ?????????

I have seen bottles and smelled pot many times. I have picked up other's trash before (draw the line at their butts because that is nasty). the worst is when you are out in the ocean and a cigarette butt or some sort of trash floats by you. Blech. We keep this up and we will not be allowed to swim in our oceans because they will be so polluted.

joan

You are right about roadrage, crazydazy: I rolled down my window and told another driver once, "Hey this is my beach too - please don't litter!". (She had thrown her cigarette out the window.) This young girl proceeded to call me every four letter word in the book, but what really shocked me, was that she called me "you old hag!" Now that really hurt, cause in 40 some years on this planet, I had never thought of myself as old!

Why do (some) smokers NOT consider their cigs trash????

P.S. to tieurown/blacktie: Go Bush! Go Bush! (sorry if this means you'll be out of a job though)

TripleSecDelay

beachdreams : [expect] is the operative word.

GoTravel : Why even start smoking in the first place? Were you never told "not to"?

message: "You could not be more wrong if you tried." Truth be known, I /could/ be more wrong if I tried. You /know/ that I wasn't trying to be wrong. Anyway, I've enjoyed reading your posts on other threads. You have a great sense of humor.

Congratulations on your success.

LoveItaly

You will all love this! Yesterday I was behind a pickup truck with the driver sticking his arm out the window, cigaret in hand. No surprise, he finally threw the cigaret out the window. Than, he threw which looked like a McDonald bag out the window.
Guess he did not realize there was a police car behind me. Too funny. You know the scenerio. Flashing lights, siren, police car serves around me and goes after the pickup truck. Justice does prevail.

GoTravel

TripleSec, I was 14 when I started smoking and that was before all the really bad stuff came out about smoking. I was a kid, who was I going to listen to?

Later in life, I started really exercising and eating right to try and offset some of the damage.

I would teach a step aerobics class and couldn't wait to light up that first smoke.

I saw my best friends father die of lung cancer and was with him until the very end. He smoked until he was no longer physically able.

That still didn't get me to quit. I could not quit.

I won't go into what finally turned the corner for me but it was the hardest thing I've ever done.

Almost two years later and nicotine cravings still bring me to my knees.

So you see it isn't that I had no concern for my body. It was an addiction much bigger that I was.

I haven't smoked in almost two years and pray to God that I'm able to stay smoke free the rest of my life.

I think of myself kicking a drug addiction and not having to quit smoking.

atilla

Very well put GoTravel, it is a drug addiction just like any other.
=D>

Patrick

This is not meant as an excuse, just a true story. I have a friend in her late 50's who has chain smoked all her adult life. About four or five years ago she quit -- with incredibly effort. She went smoke free for just under a year. In that time, her mother who never smoked died of breast cancer, her brother who never smoked died of brain cancer, and she herself developed a form of lymphoma totally unrelated to the smoking. She went through chemo and radiation treatment and is cancer free so far. She decided she missed smoking and restarted, trying to justify that there are worse things than possibly getting lung cancer from something you enjoy so much. Sad, but true.

youinhaledlol

Oh, joan, you are too funny. It's one way to get your vote counted. The west coast seems to have a more honest system, lol, thankfully.

sunnybrook31

Quote: "My question related to impact on the environment, not etiquette. In fact, I once had a science professor
tell me that throwing apple cores out the window was GOOD for the environment."

My comment was related to the environment as well. Littering is littering is littering. True, an apple core will biodegrade eventually, but it's still LITTERING. If we all threw our cores and rinds and whatnot out of our window, the streets would be even more lined with garbage.

AND -- not only is rotting food on the roadside unsightly, but it also lures animals toward the road, where they're likely to get hit by cars.

Birdie

GoTravel: I hate to bring this up and I know people are going to jump on me for saying it but the latest from the birding people is that feeding the birds is probably not that good for them. It causes them to eat less of their "natural" diets and can encourage the spread of disease. I too love to see birds congregating at a feeder but perhaps its not worth the trouble of collecting scraps from restaurants. The alternative could be to use a good quality bird seed mix and clean bird feeders.

k_999_9

Wow, this thread is still going strong. OK, then, I'll jump back in, as a response to sunnybrooke.

To restate my original question: Is there an environmental difference between throwing an apple core out a car window and throwing a cigarette butt?

I did not ask about --
-- the definition of littering ( I know it already)
-- what would happen if a million people threw apple cores out their windows (I know that already, too)
-- or whether killing off small animals by luring them to roadsides is a good idea (some would argue that lessening the racoon population is a plus).

I suppose we could somehow connect a discarded apple core with world peace, a cure for the common cold and the eradication of political ads, but those noble pursuits are similarly off the point.

GoTravel

k_999_9, yes there is an enviromental difference between throwing a cigarette butt and an apple core out of a car.

Firstly, the cigarette butt is not biodegradable and the apple core is. The apple core will probably be completely gone within a week. The cigarette butt could take years to break down.

Most importantly, the apple core cannot start a fire. Cigarette butts have been know to start horrendous forest fires.