So I'm going to try to be better about this blogging regularly thing. This morning I was listening to a radio show about litter, and because I live in a college party town, red Solo cups and beer bottles are ubiquitous. It's unsightly, sure, and broken glass is a hazard, but what really got me thinking was all the cigarette butts.

Most people just toss their butts on the ground. Maybe it's apathy - if you smoke you're clearly not totally concerned about your own health and wellbeing, so why care about that of the planet? But probably it's also ignorance and inconvenience.

Firstly, a lot of people think that cigarette filters are made of cotton and thus biodegradable. Not true. They're actually made of cellulose acetate tow, which sticks around for decades. Secondly, there are some nasty chemicals in that filter (the filter is what keeps some of the nasties from getting into your mouth and throat) which leach into the soil when it rains. That's why you would never want cigs in your vegetable garden!

Another huge problem is that people get lazy about making sure their cigs are totally out before they toss them. A lot of people who smoke in their cars don't want to rub out the butt on their ashtray, so they just toss the lighted butt out the window. If it hasn't rained lately that's a huge risk you're taking. A goodly percentage of forest fires start due to this little habit. And if you smoke in your car it already smells super nasty anyway, so what's a little ash on your ashtray.

At the university here, most people put out their butts during the daylight hours in the designated butt holders that are outside most of the buildings. I had to put out a smoldering fire in one of those babies at the end of last semester, and my Nalgene smelled like sicko smoke for days.

But when night falls and the kids go out to parties, they drink a few too many and lighting up seems like the sexiest thing ever. Who wants to bet they don't go to the trouble of finding the appropriate receptacle for their butts, if they can't be bothered to find a proper receptacle for their cups and bottles? Jerks.

What about you? Do you smoke? Are you lazy with your butts or do you always take care that you dispose of them properly? Hit me up on the comments section!