Delaware Smokers Litter
December 23rd, 2006 by Dan GaffneyI love this report about smokers and littering. When you listen to it, please remember WGMD reporter Joe Ciccanti actually sat in the parking lot at Midway and counted how often smokers tossed their butts on the ground! Are smokers this self centered and self absorbed in other areas of their life, or only when it comes to littering?
Hear the report here, and others here.
I agree with the manager of Prime Hook; a five cent deposit on butts to help clean up.
December 23rd, 2006 at 5:55 am
Lets see…smoking cigarettes kills, and now we know that even the butts are harmful to the environment. Why not ban the darned things altogether?
Oh, I forgot…the government. They can look the other way as long as they’re getting their cut.
December 23rd, 2006 at 9:29 am
Ban them? I think we all know that banning isn’t a solution. Smokers may well be in the minority these days but those who still do will find cigarettes somewhere, somehow. And where do we put those who would break that law?
Not all smokers are that inconsiderate either…we just get lumped with the rest of them. Myself, taking a smoke break at work my butts are extinguished and put in trash receptacles, otherwise if I’m outdoors I’ll find a receptacle somewhere for that same purpose or, if one isn’t available (which is often the case), the butt goes in a pocket until I get back to my car or home. Since we are on this subject, though, kudos to Wal-Mart in Georgetown for considering their employees who smoke. Stopped by there a couple of weeks ago and noticed a group of their employees in one of those portable carport/garage structures…metal supports with tarp-type cover. Benches had been set up, big buckets in their midst for ash trays. The group consisted, at that moment, of a dozen or more staff. We talked to one of them, asking if this was specifically their smoke “room”. It was and it had been set up for them by their manager. It’s on one side of the store, off the parking lot, keeps the smokers (and smoke) out of the way of entering and exiting customers and allows the smokers their chance of a break out of all weather conditions. Good for them, I say!
December 26th, 2006 at 5:55 pm
As a smoker who should quit, I have always been considerate of those who don’t share this questionable habit. Even when smoking was permitted in restaurants I always asked those at adjoining tables if my smoking would bother them. If it did, I asked them to move…just kidding..I refrained or moved. I am also repelled by butts laying around in ashtrays, on walkways and streets and by those who find it necessary to use them as shoulder to air missles from their car windows. Like Nancy, I always try to find a receptable, and this entire problem has pushed me to think development and marketing of something for personal disposal in the event a receptacle is not at hand.