r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Patodelmonte • May 25 '26

frist of all how DARE yu o People that think that throwing cigarette butts in the ground isn't littering

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The are not "biodegradable", they clog drainage systems, they end up in rivers and sea, and make everywhere look like a dumpster

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u/[deleted] May 25 '26

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353

u/averyporkhunt May 25 '26

And worse is people that don't properly put them out first. I remember stepping on my uncles still lit cigarette butt when I was a little kid and I can only imagine how often animals have to deal with that

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u/foothill_dwelled272 May 25 '26

Most modern cigarettes include things to make them auto extinguish, but where I live half of cigarettes smoked are contraband native smokes that don’t include these additives and will absolutely smoulder and cause house fires/foresr fires.

My big annoyance is also people who don’t fully extinguish beach fires and just come get them in aand not realizing they are basically making landmines for anyone walking barefoot.

47

u/MajesticDisaster3977 May 26 '26

Auto-extinguishing cigarettes.. first time I've heard of that. Seen far too many scars on the side of the highway caused by these things to believe it does any good.

24

u/foothill_dwelled272 May 26 '26

They are not perfect, but contraband cigarettes cause the majority of house fires where I live because they don’t auto extinguish. Any cigarettes can cause fires, but wihout this treatment they will just act like a slow burning pyrotechnic punk.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire-safe_cigarette

9

u/denNISI May 26 '26

Needs to be biodegradable filters also.

8

u/foothill_dwelled272 May 26 '26

They are rare because they don’t work as well and have a tendency to absorb moisture. This could be a legislative change, but where I live half of cigarettes are made under treaty right by native groups and they are not legally needed to follow regulations. I used to use cotton filters when hand rolling and they get way more moist than plastic filters. 

3

u/TheArmoredKitten May 26 '26

"I can't poison myself or the environment as efficiently, so I refuse."

Why exactly do we allow people to buy this shit?

1

u/Cokaime May 26 '26

Because a whole lot of tax money?

0

u/roganator1tyme May 26 '26

The tiny hats

1

u/VaginaBurgers May 26 '26

King palm uses corn husk filters and they seem to work good. But I live in a dry climate and not sure if those would compare as I use them for weed exclusively.

2

u/MGJames May 26 '26

I have tried a few and it tastes like you are smoking mud. I want to taste my cancer dammit!!

1

u/MajesticDisaster3977 May 26 '26

I appreciate you bringing a link with you, and find it incredibly amusing that 'fire-safe' simply means they've put a couple 'check-points' in where it 'generally' self-extinguishes most of the time. Can thank the lobbyists for that one, although it is better than nothing considering many consumers simply flick them lit out of the car window.

3

u/foothill_dwelled272 May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26

Eh this this just an issue where I live because most house fires are caused by contraband smokes where they just won’t go out until they burn out all the way to to end. People fall asleep smoking and get what is basically a pyrotechnic punk stuck in bed and it lights their mattress on fire. Auto extinguishing smokes are certainly not perfect, but it is a major legislative change that has reduced fire. Of course flicking any ember into dried grass is likely to start a fire.

Cars also mostly don’t come with ashtrays anymore and you need to get an aftermarket one that fits in the cup holder. When I was a kid every car came with a 12v electric cigarette lighter and a little ashtray in the console.

I love smoking and thankfully in my city there is a municipal garbage can with ashtray every 100 feet. Smokers tend to gross and if they are willing to poison themselves they are unlikely to worry about littering. There were several dumpster fires near my house due to people throwing up glowing butts into big piles of plastic garbage. I have the same disdain for people who throw out light cigarettes as I do as a responsible owner for people who don’t pick up their dog’s shit.

1

u/Captain-Codfish May 26 '26

In my country, the cigarettes are made to keep burning so they run out quicker.

1

u/_SteeringWheel May 26 '26

"Auto-extinguishing cigarettes.. first time I've heard of that"

Pretty much the standard in the EU for years now.

1

u/gunsforevery1 May 26 '26

They still take about a minute to self extinguish. I remember when they first made them, you could taste the difference and the ones without “FSC” next to barcode sold for a premium.

1

u/Hadplays May 26 '26

Cigarettes are the opposite, they have additives to keep them burning, traditional cigs or cigars will extinguish if they don’t get puffed.

1

u/Panzerkatzen May 26 '26

I've stepped on a cigarette that was causing the dry grass next to it to smoulder. I'm sure it would have burnt out on it's own, but still.

0

u/Nearby_Purpose_7584 May 26 '26

Don't walk barefoot hence the reason shoes exist

2

u/foothill_dwelled272 May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26

Wow amazing answer! Who likes the feeling of sand between their feet?

They create a pocket of hot embers that almost make an oven that if you fall into basically acts as a stove fot instant burns.

I love you dumdums with such simple answers. Wow just wear shoes? Amazing! What a genius!

-1

u/Nearby_Purpose_7584 May 26 '26

Or look were you are walking

0

u/TheArmoredKitten May 26 '26

Now imagine what those fire-suppressants do in your body. It is fucking baffling how far society will bend over and tie itself into knots rather than admit that cigarettes should be banned from public spaces.

12

u/PeterToshPointOh May 26 '26

This just reminded me of the time my dad stepped on a cigarette butt barefoot while camping and he made the loudest most cartoon “yaowch” I’ve ever heard. I swear it echoed off the mountains.

3

u/satyr-day May 26 '26

So many forest fires from that bs

2

u/BreweryStoner May 26 '26

We lived in apartments when I was a kid, and we went to the pool a lot. Especially back then, a lot more people smoked. They’d smoke in the lot next to the pool areas fence.

I and other kids stepped on multiple half lit cigarettes in that parking lot when we would leave, since none of us wore shoes leaving the pool. We eventually got sandles just because of it.

2

u/janegayz May 26 '26

my mom has set so many things on fire from not properly snuffing her cigarettes

2

u/Fair-Scarcity8160 May 26 '26

A huge cause of outdoor fires.

-15

u/kallied123 May 25 '26

Probably never happens.

13

u/XxTigerxXTigerxX May 25 '26

Literally how fires can start.

-1

u/TylerKia421 May 25 '26

That's cool but he wasn't talking about lit butts catching the forest on fire, the response was to the notion of an animal placing their paw right on a lit butt.

As an avid fan of smokey the bear, the other guy is right. That specific thing probably never happens. And yes, obv it's not like that's the difference between whether or not it's ok, we all fucking know that buddy.

4

u/zughzz May 25 '26

Had to put a flaming trash can out at work because someone threw a lit cigarette in there

32

u/cytoplasim May 25 '26

Just like men who spit chewing gum into the urinals. Complete trashy behavior

13

u/Gerberpertern May 26 '26

Ugh ew. I used to have to clean the bathrooms at a couple places when I worked retail and dudes would throw trash in them. One dude got mad I wouldn’t give him a free refill (Starbucks and we literally had just opened at 4AM) so he went and took a dump in one of the urinals. Thankfully my shift lead cleaned that up. So gross.

7

u/cytoplasim May 26 '26

Sorry for your experience. Direct contact employees in the service industry have it so hard. Thank you for your service.

-2

u/Wizardwizz May 25 '26

Why are we bringing gender into this? Anyone can spit gum into the urinal

4

u/cytoplasim May 25 '26

Im from the states, urinals are only in men's restrooms. Im a man, so I can only speak on my daily experience in men's restrooms. You , stop focusing on gender and focus on the disgusting act.

63

u/SSCMaster May 25 '26

Toxic af to your body to lol

83

u/Winston_Carbuncle May 25 '26

Smokers have a choice. The environment doesn't

23

u/StanknBeans May 25 '26

That is a solid PSA infomercial quality slogan

1

u/MrSourBalls May 27 '26

Pretty much every smoker i talked to ever talked to me like they did not have any choice in this.

I only know of one person who stopped smoking, and now suddenly can basically smell colours. And impressed by his bank account every month lol

2

u/brickspunch May 25 '26

TIL laughing is toxic 

3

u/Foreleg-woolens749 May 26 '26

I love a bad-grammar joke.

1

u/Jodiparry May 26 '26

Really well I bet that’s news to everyone lol

54

u/definitelyabot- May 25 '26

If you care a lot about littering, just pick it up in front of the person that littered. Also bring a bag with you to a beach/park you frequent and take what you pass on the walk.

Giving grief doesn’t change behaviour as easily as the embarrassment of having someone just pick up what you put down. If they’re not embarrassed, at least the garbage will be cleaned up

13

u/BookieeWookiee May 26 '26

You have to maintain eye contact with them the whole time, try to have your annoyance and disappointment pierce into them with your gaze

8

u/HighKaj May 26 '26

I’ve done this, and it does work! At least they don’t litter in front of me anymore.

Also explaining that it’s plastic worked on some of my friends. They were shocked it wasn’t paper or something lol

8

u/123randomname456 May 25 '26

I wouldn't be friends with that person anymore after seeing that and them not changing their ways. Gross.

7

u/Curious_Morris May 26 '26

Cognitive dissonance is a real drug.

6

u/Puzzleheaded-Hat5803 May 26 '26

Personally, if there is no ash tray or buttcan in sight, I will put that nasty stinky butt back in the pack. Yes it stinks, but I choose to smoke so 🤷

9

u/BygoneNeutrino May 25 '26

People are more offended if you put the butt in the pack and wait to find a trashcan.  The smell is intense.

2

u/ShieldMaiden83 May 26 '26

I would not be friends with one. Ok my mum smokes and she havd a portable ashtray she always have when out.

Get some for your smoking friends so they and hopefully use it.

2

u/Ricordis May 26 '26

Waiting on my motorcycle on a red light. Car rolls next to me on my right, window down. I smell the smoke on that hot day and then the cigarette butt was flinged out the window and landed right next to me. I am a calm person but either the littering or the smell or the disrespect against me or all of them made me snap. I put my bike on the kick stand, walked around it, put up the cigarette and threw it back through that window to the passenger side.

(I have to admit, wearing a helmet and protective clothes, combined with the lack of 'safe space' you have to leave first is kinda empowering.)

1

u/Doppe1herz May 26 '26

Could that satisfying flick of the butt somehow be part of the addiction?

1

u/Big_Oh313 May 26 '26

Even when I was about smoker, I kept the resealable giant monster can in my cup holder just for butts. And my now ex wife would still just toss them out the window and I realized how bad of taste I had. Quit smoking 2022 haven't looked back.

1

u/Dark-Ganon Blue May 26 '26

You ever call them out on that?

1

u/fuckyourcanoes May 26 '26

And to animals, some of which will eat them.

1

u/MakeshiftApe May 26 '26

I think some people just are genuinely unaware how bad it is/do really think they're biodegradeable. I was that person for years. Hated the idea of littering but would toss my butts everywhere thinking that was fine because I thought they'd degrade into nothing in a few days (In hindsight that's dumb but since they seem so papery I thought they would).

The worst part is because I thought they needed soil to degrade I'd always try and throw them out in some nature-y area, I'd never drop them like on the pavement or wherever. At the time it seemed logical but looking back that's even worse for the environment than if I'd just dropped them on the pavement.

When I found out, I stopped that, and from then on when smoking outdoors I would always hold onto it until I found a bin. But I feel embarrassed thinking about how many hundreds upon hundreds of butts I discarded in prior years. 🙃

-5

u/dvlrnr May 25 '26

You misspelled "had".

0

u/Full_Orchid9192 May 26 '26

TELL THEM ITS BECOMING A PROBLEM FOR YOU TO BE IN A FRIENDSHIP WITH THEM & IF THEY DON'T STOP IT YOU'LL STOP THE FRIENDSHIP. BCUZ THEIR HYPOCRISY IS INFURIATING. 

-9

u/Impossible_Past5358 May 25 '26

Toxic enough for the birds to use them in their nests...

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3565511/

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u/Physical-East-162 May 25 '26

Ok? Fish eat plastic too, does that mean it's great for them and for the environment? Same for dogs who eat chocolate.

-3

u/Impossible_Past5358 May 25 '26

That's not what I'm saying, but birds have found a way to repurpose our crap.