Confronting Smokers on Cigarette Butt Litter: "Rebuttals"

Today, on my way to the library, I was crossing a busy Milwaukee street when a middle-aged woman in a blue Buick dangled her cigarette out the window, waiting at the stoplight as we pedestrians crossed. I watched her closely, sensing what was coming. Sure enough, she flicked her butt out of the window and onto the street. It was evident from her nonchalance that she gave little thought to her littering, and this was probably not the first time she had dirtied the floor of our city with her careless cigarette waste.

Though I wanted to dart over, pick up the cigarette remnant, and fling it back into her vehicle while telling her she was a b*tch, I decided that would be ineffective, imprudent, and ruder than required. Frustrated, I slowed, shot her one hell of a dirty look, and kept walking. It was the best I could do under the circumstances, as I was in a crosswalk. Chances are that, had we been waiting at a bus stop, I probably would have looked at her, picked up the butt, and thrown it away myself - a deliberate public gesture aimed at shaming her into acknowledging her mistake, at least to herself. Of course, I could always say something directly, and I have done that on select occasions.

Part of the problem is that smokers get the tacit message that it's acceptable to litter. Particularly in crowded settings, when no one says or does anything in response to cigarette litter, the smoker may honestly believe there's no problem with dropping a butt. If no one, through actions or words, ever confronts them, they aren't likely to question their behaviour.

You may be thinking, "Gee, Brian, you're really fired up about this minor indiscretion, aren't you?"

I sure am - because I see it happen everyday and I don't consider it a minor indiscretion anymore. After all, millions of cigarette butts don't just smoke themselves and magically jump onto the ground without being cast there by smokers. Cigarette litter is everywhere: stuffed in sidewalk cracks, lying in the grass, rolling in the gutter, blowing alongside leaves, floating in the lake. Sure, cigarette butts are smaller in than, say, pizza boxes, soda cans, or cardboard boxes - but their sheer ubiquitousness more than makes up for their size.

As I spend time sitting at the park, waiting for a bus, or just walking in tune with my iPod, I see smokers casting their cigarette butts on the ground, even when appropriate receptacles are nearby. My anger stems from the fact that cigarette litter doesn't just affect the smoker; it detracts from the tidiness of our public spaces. By the way, if you don't think that the appearance of an environment has larger sociological implications, consider the "Broken Windows" concept that Malcolm Gladwell discusses in The Tipping Point. Little things do make a big difference.

For those not swayed by aesthetic and related arguments, consider this: it costs a municipality money to have workers cleaning up cigarette butts, and because they're spread everywhere, it can take longer to do a thorough job. Though not every street is picked up by municipal staff, high visibility areas like parks and downtowns often are. Residential property owners have to spend time clearing their yards of butts, and businesses have to ask their employees to clean up this extra waste, taking time away from other substantive tasks.

So, we've established that this is a problem that affects everyone, smokers and nonsmokers alike. Let me insert here that I thank the many smokers who do NOT litter. I recognize that not everyone engaged in the habit of smoking is necessarily engaged in the habit of littering. I'm not even claiming that smokers are more likely to litter than nonsmokers (though a Texas Department of Health study reached that very conclusion just a few years ago. See www.Don'tMessWithTexas.org for details.) My goal is not to demonize smokers, but the reality is that a significant amount of litter stems from their habit.

When confronted about their cigarette butt litter, the population of littering smokers typically resorts to a number of rationalizations about why they're justified. Following are some of my "rebuttals," if you will pardon the pun.

They say: "Cigarette butts aren't really litter" OR "They're biodegradable."
Rebuttal: The fact the cigarette butts will eventually decompose does not mean that they don't constitute litter. Paper and plastic will one day break down, too, but we immediately recognize throwing a newspaper on the ground or tossing a coke bottle out the window as litter. As a side note for those who think filters are made of cotton: most cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate. The actual substance is somewhat immaterial here because either way, a littered butt is going to be around for awhile.

They say: "There just aren't enough receptacles for cigarette butts."
Rebuttal: It's true that cigarettes require special, safe disposal containers that are not always as convenient as regular trash receptacles. However, the fact that containers for cigarette butt trash are harder to find than regular garbage cans does not alleviate smokers of proper disposal responsibility. If I am at a museum and I need to blow my nose, I have to keep my dirty tissue with me until I can throw it away someplace proper - I'm not suddenly vindicated by arguing that there wasn't a garbage can next to the sculpture I was admiring. There are also companies that sell cleverly small personal ashtrays that smokers can easily carry with them.

They say: "I'm addicted to smoking, and it's not my choice."
Rebuttal: Even people who have been smoking for a long time still exercise discretion over where and when they light up. They may not be in enough control of their addiction to, for example, quit cold turkey. But even hardcore smokers are consciously choosing to smoke in the locations they do and to throw the butt on the ground when they're done. Don't use physical addiction as an excuse when it's not germane. If you were angry at someone and burned them with a cigarette, you couldn't use tobacco addiction as justification for your voluntary act. Littering, though admittedly less dramatic than burning someone, follows a similar logical structure. Your addiction is incidental to your choice to litter.

They say: "No one has ever said anything to me before, so it can't be a big deal."
Rebuttal: Perhaps they were afraid of how you'd react or what other people nearby would think. Perhaps they didn't know how to word it. Perhaps they were more engrossed in something else at the time. The fact the someone isn't telling you something is inappropriate doesn't mean it's not inappropriate. Here is a related though more extreme example: If you were at a train station, grabbing your crotch and smiling at passerby, it's likely that very few of them would say anything - even though nearly all of them would find it objectionable. Just because most folks shy away from sharing their frustrations about cigarette butt litter doesn't mean your behavior doesn't bother them. Even people who have not thought about the issue before would, if you polled them, probably overwhelmingly describe the litter as unsightly, wrong, AND easily (though rarely) prevented.

They say: "This is my way of standing up for smokers' rights. We are overtaxed and limited by enough regulations about where and when we can smoke."
Rebuttal: Even Smoking Section, a leading smokers' rights group, comments against cigarette litter. Why? These advocates know that cigarette litter does not help their cause. On top of the health-related arguments they have to contend with, it doesn't help when smokers throw their butts all over the place. It will only make anti-smokers less sympathetic (I can vouch for that). If you want someone to respect your rights, you need to behave responsibly.

They say: "Don't you have anything else to worry about?"
Rebuttal: Right now, no, I don't. That's why I wrote this article.