Cigaretts Are Litter

[+Dave1976]

This has happened a couple of times to me now and I happen to take offense to this. I live it Maine and am very fortunate to have a vast area of woods to spend time in. I've been geocaching for about a month and a half now and at two of the cache sites there have been cigarette butts laying on the ground. I just want to remind cachers that Cigaretts are litter

Edited January 5, 2005 by Dave1976

[+Escapades]

No one wants to remove your Butts! Keep them with you.

[+pnew]

How true that is Dave! (and Escapades!). I worked my summers as a lifeguard back in high school and part of my duties was to keep the pool area clean. People would come to the pool to relax, smoke, and chill out... well these people must have had endorsements from Salem or something because I found myself picking up cigarrettes all over the place! One week I decided I wouldn't touch any of them on the deck and see how the patrons reacted. Sure enough they would throw them all over the place, and by the end of the week were a little curious as to where the accumulating butts had come from... and where the cigarrette collecting elf had been.

 

THEY MOST DEFINITELY DON'T TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES!!!!!!

Edited January 6, 2005 by pnew

[MooseMaMa]

Honor the Earth, and take responsibility for ones own actions. Unfortunately neither happens often enough.

[+YuccaPatrol]

Perhaps the discarded cigarette butts were part of a CITO "breeder" cache?

[+Subterranean]

There's actually a website devoted to this!

www.cigarettelitter.org

From that site:

Cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate tow, NOT COTTON, and they can take decades to degrade.

What happens after that butt gets casually flicked onto the street, nature trail, or beach? Typically wind and rain carry the cigarette into the water supply, where the toxic chemicals the cigarette filter was designed to trap leak out into aquatic ecosystems, threatening the quality of the water and many aquatic lifeforms. Cigarette butts may seem small, but with several trillion butts littered every year, the toxic chemicals add up!

[+CoolBreeze2513]

I have a friend that goes with us sometimes when we go geocaching. He always brings a small baggie or a container for his cigarettes. He learned very quickly the first time around, when he threw a cig butt on the ground and we picked it up. He felt embarrased so since then, he has not done that again in our hikes on geocaching.

[gridlox]

I have a friend that goes with us sometimes when we go geocaching.  He always brings a small baggie or a container for his cigarettes.

How the heck does he do any hiking while smoking them thangs?!?

 

I started smoking when I was 14 (It was what all the Cool Kids did!)

 

When I quit 12 years later I was up to 2 - 2.5 packs a day.

I'd get winded just walking across the parking lot at the grocery store.

To go off on even a short hike would be a joke!!

 

Shoot! That was almost 14 years ago when I quit, and I still get smokers hack if I over do it on some days!

 

<------coughing

 

D-man

Edited January 16, 2005 by gridlox

[+CoolBreeze2513]

How the heck does he do any hiking while smoking them thangs?!?

 

I am guessing he got used to it. I don't know but I will be sure to ask

Edited January 16, 2005 by CoolBreeze2513

[+WxGuesser]

when i used to smoke it didn't slow me down at all.. i was still running like 6:45 miles.... i wonder how fast i could do it now since i haven't smoked in about 7 months.

[+Team Neos]

Cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate tow, NOT COTTON, and they can take decades to degrade

Science moment here:

Cellulose acetate is made from wood pulp processed with acetic anhydride or from cotton treated with acetic acid, using sulfuric acid as a catalyst. That means that unlike most man-made fibers, it comes from a renewable resource and is biodegradable.

In addition to being used to make cigarette filters, cellulose acetate is also used in personal hygiene products, handi-wipes, bandages for dressing wounds, and other filter media, such as coffee filters. It is also used to make clothing, as the product is soft, breathable, and very comfortable.

 

According to research undertaken by A Ach, (see:Biodegradable plastics based on cellulose acetate. Jour Macromolecular Science-Pure & Applied Chemistry. 1993;A30(9-10):733-740.) "Cellulose acetate filters may persist under normal environmental conditions for 18 months or more."

 

edited to spell the name for my favorite drink "coffee" correctly

Edited January 17, 2005 by Team Neos

[+ngr00]

Also Camel-brand cigarettes use genuine cotton filters. You can feel the difference when you rub the filter tip of a Camel vs. any other brand.

[+Buddaman]

I leave my smokes in the car when i go on the hunt.

When i need a smoke I do it between caches on the drive to another find.

[+MissJenn]

Science moment here:

Cellulose acetate is made from wood pulp processed with acetic anhydride ...

I love moments like these!

[+chstress53]

As a naturalist. yes some filters biodegrade and so does theout side paper but what happens to the toxic stuff that makes cigs bad for us is left behind when the outside is gone those tars & nicotines go through the soil and eventually into the underground water table we all drink. Yes the earth filters toxins out naturally b=ut this is a NON point source pollution that is slowly destroying our water.

 

Please take out all cigs if you must smoke I kknow that most of us do but I too have found many butts on the ground around way too many caches.

[+Jeeping Family]

Are Volcano's Non-Point Pollution Sources?

[+Subterranean]

Cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate tow, NOT COTTON, and they can take decades to degrade

According to research undertaken by A Ach, (see:Biodegradable plastics based on cellulose acetate. Jour Macromolecular Science-Pure & Applied Chemistry. 1993;A30(9-10):733-740.) "Cellulose acetate filters may persist under normal environmental conditions for 18 months or more."

"...can take decades to degrade"

 

"...may persist under normal environmental conditions for 18 months or more"

 

So, the site I linked and the article you referenced are in agreement then.

[+pnew]

On top of all of this you've got to hand out the Darwin awards to those who've started forest fires from flicking their butts out the car window in a dry wooded area. You'd think the chances of this occuring is nill to none, but as proven every summer its quite easy

 

...and no lets leave the natural forest fires to nature and prescribed burns to the professionals

Edited January 24, 2005 by pnew

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

Thats wy when I smoke it's non filter.

And I police all butts......I am a smoker and I HATE CIgBUTTS.

[+Greymane]

The smoker sub-species will never cease to amaze me. I remember those days of running our PRTs (Physical Readiness Tests) and the smokers would light up just before that 1.5 mile run and then immediately after. Boggles the mind!

 

Why would you expect someone with that little respect for their body to have any more respect for nature?

 

I now submit to the honorable gentleman hacking to my left.

 

Sorry, just a BTW, no tobacco products are permitted in the vicinity of these tests anymore. If you are caught indulging, you are asked to leave.

Edited February 18, 2005 by Greymane

[marxthespot]

Smoker (keeps his butts with him)

 

I realize that cigarette butts are pollution, and an offenssive habit. If I smoke on a trail, I keep my "butts" with me. I put them in a zip-loc bag after I extinguish them. I would encourage other smokers to do the same. Leaving butts around is no more considerate that leaving beer bottles or Gatorade containers littering the landscape.

 

Thank You,

Marxthespot (X marks the spot)