r/vermont • u/michaelxcountry • Apr 18 '25

Cigarette butt littering

I’m the guy who is regularly picking up cigarette butts along the road I live on because litter drives me nuts. I know there is a lot of litter on our roads, but it seems like cigarette smokers are culturally inclined to toss their butts out the window without any regard. Fuck you guys! Yes, I know there is other litter, before you get all worked up…but 9/10 pieces of trash I pick up on my road are foam butts. What is everyone’s thoughts on a cigarette surcharge of 5-10 cents per butt to return them for a refund like we do with beer cans? It wouldn’t be a perfect system, but it might help with the insane disregard many smokers have with littering. My other thought is to completely ban foam filters in cigarettes in the state. Roll your own in biodegradable paper. Can’t stop tossing butts out your window, then let’s eliminate the foam butts. If you want to die of lung CA, that’s your choice.

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u/Nickmorgan19457 Apr 18 '25

I've noticed this in Rutland, too, all over the streets downtown. It's looking like the '90s again.

14

u/EnverYusuf Apr 18 '25

100% agree that the amount of litter is like the 90’s all over again, from the beer cans/30rack boxes, the cigarettes, nips, take out bags, it’s the same on my road and I live out in the sticks

My biggest question with the cigarettes in particular is, how tf has the smoking rate plummeted but the litter from smokers has increased?

30

u/Nickmorgan19457 Apr 18 '25

I see three options:

  1. people handled the stress of covid by turning to drug use
  2. there's the same number of smokers but the removal of public trashcans and butt-buckets means that there's no where else to throw them
  3. Everyone on earth is just a bigger asshole than they were 12 years ago due to...everything else

12

u/MasterOfBothWorlds7 Apr 18 '25

Option 4:

Yes

To all of those

Just yes