Should smoking be banned on public beaches?
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Just make sure I'm part of your Security team and you'll be just fine.
I'd run for PM, but I'm sure someone would take a jab at me for leaving the country for a period of time like they did with Iggy.
Regardless of whether you left the country or not, I consider you far more of a Canadian than Iggy could ever hope to be.
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Regardless of whether you left the country or not, I consider you far more of a Canadian than Iggy could ever hope to be.
Harper wouldn't though and I can only image the attack ads.
Which isn't much of a concern when I think about the type of attack ads I could toss back that would make his great grandmother fart in shame within her coffin.
Yeah, but you wouldn't take those attacks laying down. You would...well, what you said. LOL!
So, smokers are the ones throwing candy bar wrappers and Tims cups, too?
If we outlaw public smoking, all the litter magically goes away? That seems to be what you're saying, because you are blaming all smokers for littering, and trying to connect the two.
Smoking does not equal littering.
There is a whole host of inconsiderate people in the world. Inconsiderate smokers and inconsiderate non-smokers too.
How far is banning going to go before it actually becomes an illegal activity?
How far is banning going to go before it actually becomes an illegal activity?
A few bad apples can spoil the barrel. I am not sure why you feel that all the cigarette butts all over the ground isn't the problem rather than people shooting lit butts at those with bare feet. No one I know of is doing that, though I am sure that it happens the odd time. Of course it's all the litter left by smokers that is a problem.
That there is a very small exception excuses the problem? Not hardly. Cigarette butts all over the ground is a problem and it's smokers, no one else that is putting them there due solely to lazy and inconsiderate actions on their part. It's not up to me to make sure you have the right equipment to smoke properly. It's your vice, you deal with the smell and the mess. You want to smoke, bring an ashtray with you.
There already are fines in place for littering. Anyone who understands sociology as it is influenced by law knows it's not the regulation but the enforcement of the regulation that makes or breaks the adherence quotient.
I bet there are ten to one more cigarette butts on the ground than there are abandoned coffee cups left on store shelves. They are enforcing a ban on eating while driving here though as distracted driving can cause an accident and some people need to focus on their driving.
Sure but we're talking about a specific problem in order to find solutions to it. It is a fruitless endeavor to attempt to find one solution that solves every problem everyone has in the world. Not that broken glass and rusty nails aren't a problem.
Yeah cause you're Irish and not because you say you have moved to Australia which as everyone knows, except for you apparently, that Mick Dundee was a character in a series of movies about an unusual Australian bushman who adapted his folksy outback ways to suit New York City sensibilities and situations. But that is obviously not why I called you Mich Dundee, it is definitely because of your Irish heritage which is not at all apparent from this thread until you brought it up. I was in fact being some what light hearted which clearly was too subtle for you here oh Captain of Comedy. Lighten the hell up serious Internet guy!
Generalizations while rarely very accurate, do help as a tool to open up discussion of some topics that have a varied set of aspects that influence the whole. Again I was making light of my location rather than setting a stern and immovable position on the subject. I guess we can't just talk about sh!t here, we have to be right every time without exception and any frivolity that may lend itself to the discussion should be constantly left out as this is some very serious Internet business right here.
You should hold a "I Was Right On The Internet Today" party just to see who shows up to congratulate you on your astounding mastery of that stick up your bum. Though I am sure you don't know it, Toronto has some great beaches and even a whole neighbourhood called The Beaches, which as irony has it, is littered with cigarette butts. I don't expect you to understand the insidious way the laughs just keep creeping in here but understand that others have to read this junk too and if they aren't getting an education they can at least have a chuckle at the inanity of the jokes.
Do you actually think that there anything even close to the amount of cigarette butts laying around that is tossed out a car window on any given day?
The answer isn't always to smash people over the head until they stop. We have many problems but the littering of cigarette butts is one that we could help reduce the occurrence of by some simple actions and a little courtesy for others.
As I said it's futile to think that in order to reduce the amount of litter, specifically cigarette butts on the beach, that you have to solve all aspects of pollution. Sometimes it's better to break things down into specifics and deal with those issues which the sum of makes a greater impact than giving up on a problem too big to resolve all at once.
Or more people fighting fines in an already congested court system.
That would be rocket engineering not rocket science. A common misunderstanding.
Sadly Nova Scotia isn't the brain trust capital of Canada. Of course people will simply move to another store if it means they spend some 60 cents less on bags. Even if it costs them 2 bucks more in gas to drive there. In Toronto, it is a mandatory fee with the proceeds intended to go to charity. Though there are some stores that just pocket the extra money, most make a donation of the funds to deserving organizations. It has reduced the amount of bags that at one time littered the city. There is still litter but it's been reduced by that amount. That's a good thing.
There is no company that is honestly in business to have fun and make friends. Environment should be taken into consideration by every one every day. No one like to live among garbage and it's just a little consideration that helps keep a city clean.
As I mentioned, there are few if any cans or bottles littering the streets of Toronto due to the recycling efforts of some people. Put a deposit on it and someone will pick it up and return it for that deposit. Almost magic how that works so well.
Sure you could, it's a free world for some of us. Sadly your argument would fail under the obvious condition that there aren't people picking up all the cigarette butts because they can't afford their own. Not to say that it doesn't happen, it does. Just no where near the number that scavengers pick bottles and cans up in Toronto. So you're point here fails although Ricky from TPB is a very funny character.
"Choose your battles wisely". That's the smart play isn't it?
I'm glad you asked.....
Facts from http://buttcrusher.com/
Butt Litter
SERIOUS CONCERNS ABOUT CIGARETTE BUTT LITTER
- Cigarette litter is now considered the number one litter problem in the world
- Globally there are over 4.3 trillion cigarette butts littered every year
- Almost one in three cigarette butts end up as litter
- Smoking bans have dramatically increased cigarette butt litter
- Tossed cigarette butts are responsible for thousands of fires every year
Cigarette Butt Litter: An estimated 4.5 trillion (non-biodegradable) butts are discarded into the environment worldwide each year.1 It has been suggested that cigarette butts represent the biggest litter problem facing the world today.
It is estimated that 1 in 3 cigarettes end up as litter.2 Cigarette butts are not biodegradable and can take up to 12 years to break down. This is because the filter is composed of cellulose acetate1 which is a form of plastic and as most of us know, plastic does not decompose very easily and many forms of plastic can take up to 1,000 years to decompose.
Each year, tens of thousands of Canadians take part in the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. In 2007, cigarette butts were recorded as the number one item recovered during the annual cleanup. During the 2007 cleanup, volunteers collected over 270,000 cigarette butts from shores across the country.3
Water pollution: When cigarette butts are discarded on the ground, many of the toxic chemicals will leach out of the cigarette and will run in to the lakes and oceans. Cigarette butts can leach chemicals such as cadmium, lead and arsenic into our marine environment within an hour of contact with water.2 Cigarette butts have been found in the stomachs of fish, whales, birds and other marine animals which leads to ingestion of hazardous chemicals and digestive blockages. The pieces can get lodged in an animal's intestinal tract or build up in its stomach, which can often lead to the animal's death.4
Pets: Discarded butts can pose serious health concerns for pets, particularly in playground and park settings. It only takes two or three cigarette butts ingested by a small pet to seriously harm or kill them. Because there's no nutritional value, when an animal eats a cigarette butt or several cigarette butts, they feel full and can actually starve to death.4,5
Deforestation: Each year nearly 600 million trees are destroyed to provide fuel to dry tobacco. Put in another way one tree is destroyed for every 300 cigarettes. Globally, tobacco curing requires 11.4 million tons of solid wood annually.6 Curing is the drying of the tobacco leaf which in most developing countries means that acres of trees are chopped down and burned in order to dry the tobacco leaf. In southern Africa alone an estimated 200,000 hectares of woodlands are cut annually to support tobacco farming. This accounts for 12% of deforestation in the region.7
Additionally, further deforestation is caused by the paper use associated with wrapping, packaging, and advertising cigarettes. A modern cigarette manufacturing machine will use more than six kilometres of paper per hour. Can you imagine how many trees that is?3,7
Production Waste: The tobacco manufacturing process produces liquid, solid, and airborne wastes. In 1995, the global tobacco industry produced an estimated 2262 million kilograms of manufacturing waste and 209 million kilograms of chemical waste.1
Why are cigarette butts the biggest littler problem? There are many reasons why cigarette butts are such a huge environmental issue. First of all, most people don't think of them as litter. According to new survey findings from the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, only 18% of Canadians believe that cigarette butts are the most abundant form of litter in Canada. Everyone can admit to running after a dropped napkin because we didn't want to litter and we all cringe at the thought of leaving a plastic bag on the ground. The harsh truth is that the worst type of trash is the one that Canadians toss without a second thought.3
Most Canadian provinces have very strict laws around smoking indoors, even limiting smoking in front of doorways and entrances in order to keep the smoke from entering the buildings. An unfortunate side effect of these policies is that cigarette butt litter dramatically increases where indoor smoking bans are implemented. Smokers are now spending most of their time smoking outdoors and tossing their butts away on the concrete rather than putting them in to a receptacle.
Seeing cigarette litter on your campus? Keep your campus green.
For more information, visit your Leave The Pack Behind Team on campus.
References:
1 Novotny, T.E. & Zhao, F. (1999). Consumption and production waste: another externality of tobacco use. Tobacco Control, 8, 75-80.
2McLaren, W. (2005, October 20). Cigarette Butts: One Huge Problem, Two Solutions. Retrieved September 29, 2008, from TreeHugger.
3 (2008, August 20). Plastic bags and cigarette butts: new data from TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup finds perception "butts" reality. [News Release]. Toronto: TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup.
4 Ebersole, R.S. (2000). Butt Heads on Beaches. Audubon, 102 (4), 18.
5 Eagle, G. (2008, July 17). Worst Kind of Litter? The Examiner, pp. A1.
6 McLaren, W. (2007, February 27). Smoking: Environmental and Social Impacts. Retrieved October 2, 2008, from TreeHugger.
7 (2005, November 21). Agriculture and Environment: Tobacco. Retrieved October 2, 2008, from the World Wildlife Foundation.
That being the case, why would we ban smoking on public beaches, if the goal is to reduce butt litter?
Water pollution: When cigarette butts are discarded on the ground, many of the toxic chemicals will leach out of the cigarette and will run in to the lakes and oceans. Cigarette butts can leach chemicals such as cadmium, lead and arsenic into our marine environment within an hour of contact with water.2 Cigarette butts have been found in the stomachs of fish, whales, birds and other marine animals which leads to ingestion of hazardous chemicals and digestive blockages. The pieces can get lodged in an animal's intestinal tract or build up in its stomach, which can often lead to the animal's death.4
Prohibition never works. Smokers should carry a portable ash tray and be expected to use it. It can be easily emptied at any garbage can and cleaned out at the end of the day. If this is too stinky and too much work, maybe quitting smoking is a better option.
http://buttcrusher.com/
Maybe just maybe it was the indoor smoking ban that pushed the smokers to the streets and to littering?
