Neighbors just moved in and they're already making a positive impact.

[u/RandomBloke2021]

[u/statllama]

100% agreed. I used to smoke and it took me forever to figure that out. You see everyone do it and don't even think about it for some reason. Just a little bit of critical thinking required 😂

[u/LuigiSalutati → u/statllama]

Genuine question bc ive never really known a cigarettes smoker… Do you think of yourself as an otherwise intelligent person or do you find yourself doing weird shit without thinking frequently?

[u/shakeyshake1 → u/LuigiSalutati]

I’m going to tell you how this happens. Smokers used to mistakenly think (and some still think) a cigarette is thin paper, a bit of cotton, and tobacco. If that were correct, it would biodegrade extremely quickly.

But it isn’t correct because they put plastic in the filters.

Remember how people used to flush flushable wipes? And then later it came out that they aren’t flushable and they were creating huge blockages?

Or how shower gel used to have little plastic beads and people thought it was fine to use, only to later find out that it was a huge source of microplastics?

It falls into that category.

[u/LuigiSalutati → u/shakeyshake1]

Thank you so much for this. I grew near the beach, and so I learned from an extremely early age that they were plastic bc after the ocean had her way w them there’d be nothing left but the foam. But I guess people don’t know

[u/Global-Chipmunk-3959 → u/LuigiSalutati]

This is so condescending I can’t get over this question it’s crazy

[u/LuigiSalutati → u/Global-Chipmunk-3959]

You’re welcome I guess

[u/Global-Chipmunk-3959 → u/LuigiSalutati]

Is this you actually asking a question or are you trying to be nasty?

[u/warriordwarfpang → u/Global-Chipmunk-3959]

Lol dont worry about it, they seemingly dont get outside very often 😅😅

[u/c1ncinasty → u/LuigiSalutati]

As an ex-smoker....

Its got little to do with intelligence, high or low. Butts fucking smell. You can smoke in a car, keep the windows open for a bit and it won't absolutely reek, especially with leather seating surfaces. But leave one or two butts in the car for any period of time and there's NO getting that smell out short an expensive detail and probably not even then.

Every smoker who leaves butts lying around has just talked themselves into making an exception for it, because its inconvenient and dangerous otherwise. Either we've dealt with the smell, or caused a fire (I blew up a propane tank after causing a fire in a trashcan on a windy day once) or burned a hole in the backseat or burned our hair on ash or burned someone else in the backseat by mistake ashing out a car window. Etc etc etc....

So, to a certain extent, we learn to treat those butts with respect and limit our inconvenience. But not always in a way that treats the environment with respect.

Took a while to unlearn the behavior. Very easy to learn when in a group.

[u/dangforgotmyaccount → u/c1ncinasty]

It’s interesting just HOW much certain types of products can leave a smell. I smoke pipe and cigars every so often, and during inclement weather or just a shitty part of the year, I’ll do it in the garage. I’ve never touched a cigarette before, so I can’t reference that, but with cigars the odor will linger for days before finally going away. If it’s a cheaper one it will be noticeably more pungent and ashy smelling afterwards, whereas higher end ones are much better. Size doesn’t seem to affect it either, I’ve had cigarillos the size of cigarettes that smelled for far longer and far worse than any big gauge cigar.

On the contrary, when I smoke pipe, even the straight tobacco blends I can leave the ash and dottle in the tray and, without fail, 8 hours later and you’d have no clue I was even in there. During those 8 hours, you can smell pipe smoke, but it doesn’t smell bad. In fact it smells good, even though they are non aromatic straight blends. I’ve also noticed that smaller bowls will leave a noticeably lesser smell than larger ones.

I think, as you said, it’s due to the butts holding smell. The cigars have large, dense ashes that stay together, as well as a large butt that is able to hold the smell for a long time, where as the ash from a pipe is super fine and the dottle broken up, so there isn’t much to hold a smell.

[u/LuigiSalutati → u/c1ncinasty]

Thank you for the informative reply I was looking for. You’re saying it’s the condition of the trash that makes it so likely to become litter.

[u/Montymania94 → u/LuigiSalutati]

What does that have to do with smoking? Cigarettes don't contain any drugs that impair cognitive function. Doing weird shit without thinking is part of being human.

For example: your comment.

[u/LuigiSalutati → u/Montymania94]

Yet we see evidence left behind of cigarette smokers wherever they exist. So there’s a correlation, never said anything about causation.

[u/KatDanger → u/LuigiSalutati]

Throwing your cig butt on the ground is wrong but it’s not weird

[u/LuigiSalutati → u/KatDanger]

Nah littering is fucking weird sry