Cannon Fodder

More than a Pain in the Butt

Each time I drive somewhere the chances are good that at least one motorist will toss a cigarette butt from his car into the roadway. While I find the resulting spray of orange ashes occasionally entertaining at night, this habit is as wrong as smoking. Yet, while we continue to increase the taxes charged to people who smoke, we show great tolerance for people who choose to toss their butts into roads, on sidewalks, in grass patches, or, my favorite, into mulch piles, causing a small fire.

The same principle guiding our efforts to crack down on smoking should be applied to people who litter with their cigarette butts. If I litter, I run the risk, albeit a small one, of facing between $50 and $500 in fines. But if I toss a lit cigarette butt aside, nothing comes of it. What's the difference? Nothing.

Cigarette butts are litter. No more, no less. The acceptance of tossing them aside needs to be treated with the same vigilance as people attempting, however hard it may be, to avoid second-hand smoke.

Until we put our feet down and acknowledge that cigarette butts are trash, we have only ourselves to blame for their scattering on parking lots, roadways, landscaped areas and elsewhere.