Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Guest Author: Nick- Keep Your 'Butt' Where It Belongs

Leslie was too tired last Friday to post an Eco-Peeve
Friday blog but I am glad to take up the mantle a little late. I've had an eco-peeve I have to deal with all the time; people throwing cigarette butts out of their car windows! I can't tell you how many people I've seen mindlessly tossing their nasty (and often burning) cigarettes out of their cars while I'm driving behind them,
giving me (not so eco-friendly) fantasies of smashing my car into theirs...

I was reading some websites that talk about cigarette butt litter and got even more peeved with the information I found. Not only are cigarettes the number 1 cause of fire related death but the butts themselves are horrible for the environment. It takes up to 15 years for 1 cigarette butt to biodegrade.
It's estimated 700 billion cigarette butts on 1 site, and trillions on another are littered every year. 200 of which contain enough nicotine to kill an adult human. The chemicals are being released into the soil and washed into creaks, streams, and the ocean...Yum give me some of that poison! Thanks for being so thoughtful!
If you are a smoker beware! Next time I might decide
to live out my fantasies!!!

whyquit.com
cigarettelitter.org/

1 comment:

Miss Voodoo said...

This is super gross! I never knew that cigs took that long to biodegrade - i figured that since they were paper & tobacco...well, goes to show what sort of additives are going into those things. If this doesn't give someone a reason to quit, i don't know!?? Sometimes I don't realize how small bits of trash can really build up into mountains of litter.