Cigarette buts out car windows!?

Question

Why do people insist on throwing their cigarette butts out of their car windows??? Don't they know that this is littering? This drives me crazy, anyone else?

Answer 1

Besides the fact that it's illegal, the butts DONT dissolve like someone else posted.Most cigarette filters are composed of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic. The white fibers you see in a cigarette filter are NOT cotton, but a plastic that can persist in the environment as long as other forms of plastic. The recent beach cleanup day in the US collected over 30 million pounds of garbage. Guess what a THIRD of the debris was. Yep, cigarette butts. People who throw their butts out of car windows have no respect for themselves or anyone else.

Answer 2

It drives me nuts too, and I'm a smoker. I NEVER do this as it starts fires, is littering and shows that the person that does this is a pig.

Answer 3

there you go, it seems loads of people think they are biodegradable. they are not. i was picking them out of my mums flowerbeds for years after she quit, she used to chuck them in the compost bin.

Answer 4

Guilty.  I'll tell you why I do it.  I can't speak for every one.

Yes, I agree with you that it's littering and that I shouldn't do it.  However, it's going to biodegrade in a number of months.  So what difference does it make in the big scheme of things if it biodegrades on the side of the street or in a garbage heap?

I should say this for those that will chastise me: 1) I already KNOW I shouldn't do it.  And 2) I am careful about where I do it.  That is, around dry grass of brush, I'll hold on it a while longer.  I don't want to be responsible for starting a fire.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.  Do with it what you will.

Answer 5

Overall, smokers need to be way more polite or we're going to see more and more legislation against smoking.

Smokers!  Contain yourselves!  Ditch your butts and be conscious of your smoke and maybe, just maybe they will leave you alone.

Otherwise, eventually, you'll probably only be allowed to smoke in your own home... unless you have kids, then you'll have to go outside... unless your neighbors complain in the summer... then you'll have to buy a special chamber or construct a special air tight room to code and have your expulsions filtered.

Answer 6

They throw it out because they can't stand the smell of cigarettes in their car.

Answer 7

Makes you want to stop and ask them if when they are in there home if they throw the butts on the floor.

Answer 8

THEY DO NOT BIO DEGRADE they last for years even under sod also if your but starts a fire you are responsible for the costs of the fire when they catch you

Answer 9

Because smokers are idiots.  If they weren't idiots, they wouldn't be smoking in the first place.  Furthermore, the butts are not biodegradable within a few months.  No one in his right mind would think that.  Even if that were true, does that mean that everyone should throw all biodegradable trash out into the streets?

Answer 10

not really its kinda disolvable so that dosent really matter

Answer 11

Some people think they are biodegradable...but those filters are not.  

So it is definitely littering.  Technically you could report them for breaking the law.

Answer 12

Because some people just don't give a ****. At least it's not in their car and they don't have to clean it up. Right? What's pathetic is the people that DO throw they're butt's out the window are the the same people who go around complaining about the OTHER people who litter.