One apartment dweller recently turned to the r/Apartmentliving subreddit to rant about their inconsiderate neighbors throwing cigarette butts all over the place.
"I'm just mad now because my flowers are being burnt by cigarette ash and I just found one in my flower bed," they wrote. "I picked up a whole ash tray's worth of cigarettes out of the parking lot by the side walk after someone just opened their door and dumped their ash tray out. Cigarettes stink, they don't biodegrade and on top of that they kill people."
As the poster rightly pointed out, there are several problems with cigarette butts. Even when they are disposed of appropriately, cigarette butts never biodegrade. When they end up in landfills, they leach harmful toxic chemicals and microplastics into the soil and nearby waterways.
When disposed of inappropriately — i.e., when they are just thrown on the ground — the results can be even worse, as the butts can catch and start wildfires.
According to EarthDay.org, cigarette butts are the most abundant form of plastic waste in the world, with an estimated 4.5 trillion of them polluting the environment.
The other members of the subreddit were very sympathetic to the original poster's problem.
"Goodness, a spark from that cig could light that grass stuff up so fast. I would be irate too!!" one commenter commiserated.
"I've never understood why some people think it's ok to just leave their cigarette butts anywhere. It's littering!" wrote another.
For anyone who worries about the health of our environment and our planet, that worry begins with simply caring about the people around you: in other words, your community. As the Reddit thread illustrates, it can understandably be very frustrating to have to share communal spaces with people who just do not care at all.
Luckily, some municipalities have started to come up with some ingenious ways to remove cigarette butt litter, including collecting and recycling them into new asphalt roads, as well as training crows to pick up discarded butts in exchange for treats.
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