ON MY SOAPBOX
Can someone explain why cigarette garbage isn't garbage? Case in point....today I was following someone who apparently was finished with their smoke halfway through the adventure and tossed the still burning stick out of her driver side window. Hurled by the wind (and the science of aerodynamics), this burning projectile managed to land a direct hit on my windshield, scattering flaming little tobacco embers across my field of vision. That was an eye-opener to say the least.
Just about every day, I see someone toss a cigarette butt out of their car window, or an empty cigarette pack, or the cellophane wrapper from a cigarette pack. Then there are those times in a random parking lot where I'll see a small pile of cigarette "trash" - obviously a dumped ashtray - adjacent to or on the line of a parking space I'm pulling in to. This is not a blanket condemnation of people that smoke, but why is it that so many smokers find it okay to dump their cigarette "waste" into the environment, as though butts were as biodegradable as lawn trimmings?
The first time I saw the ocean was in the late 1970's. I broke away from my parent's routine of spending summer vacations hating everyone who went on an actual vacation and cruised down to Daytona Beach. I parked my car at The New Frontier Motel, brought my borrowed suitcase up to my room, changed into my beach clothes, and headed out to the water. My first impression wasn't the magnificence of the Atlantic Ocean, or the novelty of cars driving up and down on the densely packed beach. No...I was stunned by the fact that I was treading to the water through sand that was literally peppered with cigarette butts. I don't mean tens, or even hundreds, but countless butts. Every step I took in my inaugural march to the sea on that blazing hot sand included at least one cigarette butt. Most certainly not what I had pictured as I drove the 1000+ miles to the Atlantic Coast.
Litter is not a new problem. There are many stories told about the pioneer trails during The Westward Expansion that were littered with all sorts of refuse, and I imagine even the early cave dwellers of our continent didn't always take time to bury brontosaurus bones after cleaning a carcass. Still...we are supposed to be smarter and more aware than our ancestors, and I think a vast majority of Americans would agree that the act of deliberate environmental "trashing" is reprehensible. This may explain why it's not as common to see people toss soda cans or empty Starbucks cups from their cars, although I'm sure it does happen. It must...I just haven't seen it. But I HAVE regularly seen cigarette butts tossed out of car windows, and empty wrappers squeezed through car windows cracked just enough to allow the forceful but apparently necessary disposal of paper and plastic into the environment.
When I think about that trip to the beach over 30 years ago, I don't remember empty bottles, hamburger wrappers, or food remnants strewn about. What I DO remember is cigarette butts...everywhere. Why is this okay?
