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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTossing A Cigarette Butt Will Soon Become A Felony In Illinois
"Well, for your 3rd offense for littering it becomes a felony. But the first two times individuals get caught littering cigarette butts the penalties are still very large.
The details, via MSN:
Beginning on January 1, any Illinois citizen caught flicking a cigarette butt will face a fine of up to $1,500, thanks to a new amendment to the states litter control law. (The same fine applies for a second offense, but if theyre caught three times it becomes a Class 4 felony, which comes with a $25,000 fine and a complimentary one-year jail stay.) Cigarette butts are not biodegradable, Lori Gummow of Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful told the Rockford Register Star. They get stuck in storm water sewers and birds eat them and cant digest them. She and other anti-butt advocates hope police officers will enforce the law.
In future news, Chicago will experience a fire not seen since 1871 when all of their smoking residents discard their flaming cigarettes into trash cans at once."
http://coed.com/2013/08/29/tossing-a-cigarette-butt-will-soon-become-a-felony-in-illinois/
A class 4 felony for a cigarette butt?
Arctic Dave
(13,812 posts)Smoke all you want if that's your thing but our city and towns are not your ashtray.
damnedifIknow
(3,183 posts)That's going way too far in my opinion.
Arctic Dave
(13,812 posts)The first two fines I'm OK with. The third phase is ridiculous.
Litter detail every weekend for six months is what I would prefer.
RKP5637
(67,111 posts)juajen
(8,515 posts)They don't seem to know that this will hurt my grass. These are totally toxic to the soil. I provide ash trays everywhere I can outside of my house for their convenience, and they still throw them in my grass. I smoked for years, and always carried a container for my butts. I am glad I don't smoke anymore, and wish others would be more considerate of where they put their refuse.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)Birds also use the butts to build nests.
The ashes are very clean as they have been incinerated. However, ashtrays should be washed last to avoid radon contamination of other dishes. Not a problem if buried in soil.
(Found this on the Internet )
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)n/t
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)not just here in SoCal but around the world. Wildlife ingest them and die. The white fibers inside are PLASTIC.
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http://www.cigarettelitter.org/index.asp?pagename=facts
There is a lot of misinformation out there regarding cigarette butt litter. The biggest myth is that cigarette filters are biodegradable. In fact, cigarette butts are not biodegradable in the sense that most people think of the word. The acetate (plastic) filters can take many years to decompose. Smokers may not realize that their actions have such a lasting, negative impact on the environment.
This myth has been perpetuated not just by the wishful thinking of many smokers, but also by the cigarette companies, who have taken great pains to keep their customers in the dark on this issue. It is very common for highly littered items such as soda cans, snack wrappers, and fast food containers to have a simple "Please Don't Litter" message. You won't find such a message on cigarette packs. Although our contacts in the industry are at a loss as to why they can't take this simple step, our best guess is that they would prefer to leave their customers blissfully ignorant. Maybe they think that people will smoke fewer cigarettes if they have to be responsible for disposing of them. We think they ought to give their customers the benefit of the doubt. Smoking and littering do not have to be synonymous, as many smokers have proven by example.
What happens after that butt gets casually flicked onto the street, nature trail, or beach? Typically wind and rain carry the cigarette into the water supply, where the toxic chemicals the cigarette filter was designed to trap leak out into aquatic ecosystems, threatening the quality of the water and many aquatic lifeforms. Cigarette butts may seem small, but with several trillion butts littered every year, the toxic chemicals add up!
The best way to educate the public about this serious environmental problem is to start with people you know. If someone you know litters their cigarettes, just point them to this site. Tell them if they visit the site, you won't bug them again, but don't let them remain blissfully ignorant! If you really feel uncomfortable addressing the issue head on, check out our anonymous e-mail page, which sends a friendly notice about the importance of proper cigarette butt disposal. Talking over the problem in person is more effective, but an anonymous communication is much better than none at all.
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http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/cigbuttbiodegradable.htm
Most cigarette filters are composed of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic. The white fibers you see in a cigarette filter are NOT cotton, but a plastic that can persist in the environment as long as other forms of plastic.
Clean Virginia Waterways has looked extensively for a published, scientific research paper on the topic of how long cigarette butts take to degrade, and could find none. (If you know of one, please send us an email with details.) Various sources have stated that cigarette filters take 18 months to 10 years to degrade. It is safe to say that the cellulose acetate fibers in cigarette filters, like other plastics, are with us for some time after they are discarded. Since environments differsome places are wetter, dryer, sunnier, colder, hotter, windy, etc.so too will the degrading time differ. A cigarette butt that is littered in the Grand Canyon will degrade differently than one that is littered in Virginia.
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http://www.litterbutt.com/Stop-Litter-Campaign/So-What-If-I-Throw-My-Cigarette-Butts-On-The-Ground.aspx
So What If I Throw My Butts on the Ground? They're Biodegradable, Right?
WRONG!! If you throw your cigarette butts on the ground, they eventually find their way to the ocean and other water sheds and YOU are contributing to the most commonly found man-made waste that originates from land! "The Ocean Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental organization based in Washington, D.C., compiled the results of a shoreline cleanup day conducted by volunteers last year in 68 countries. It covered a combined 34,000 miles of shoreline and collected 7 million pounds of litter, 80 percent of which had been washed from land into the water. Of the 7.7 million items of debris collected worldwide in 2006, cigarettes and cigarette butts accounted for roughly 1.9 million, the sixth consecutive year they have topped the list.
"People think they are biodegradable," said Kathryn Novak, coordinator for the Florida branch of the Ocean Conservancy. They're not, so think before flicking that cigarette butt out the car window."
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http://www.kab.org/site/PageServer?pagename=focus_litter_prevention
Roadway Litter - Tobacco products, mostly cigarette butts, are the most littered item on U.S. roadways (38%).
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http://intraweb.stockton.edu/eyos/ehs/content/docs/smoking/Envl%20Butt%20Facts%20%203.pdf
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I don't know why I bother. You won't bother to read this, and neither will your smoker friends.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)snooper2 rarely posts without tongue firmly planted in cheek.
Sid
dionysus
(26,467 posts)frazzled
(18,402 posts)All are extremely dangerous to wildlife. Perhaps throwing away a plastic bag or a drinking straw should also be punishable by imprisonment. Not to mention recharageable batteries and lithium batteries. Discuss.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)pipi_k
(21,020 posts)I am truly terrified of about where I live....wildfires.
More than blizzards, more than ice storms.
Every hunting season I hold my breath and hope we make it through without some drunken idiot leaving a campfire going or tossing a cigarette butt out the window into some dry brush.
frazzled
(18,402 posts)to this law. It says tossing a cigarette butt out the window while driving. That could well be an extinguished cigarette.
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)This just amends the current law to...rightfully so...consider throwing cigarette butts out as litter. Throw out litter 3 times go to jail, wheteher it's cigarette butss, napkins, etc.
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)I feel derelict in not having pushed for expulsion of decades worth of badly behaved students guilty of faulty use of citations in their term papers.
Or not.
I for one still believe in the concept that real justice works to minimize damage.
sinkingfeeling
(51,461 posts)I live near a university and I cannot tell you how many thousands of beer bottles I've picked up from my yard over the last 20 years. When they break they pose a threat to my dogs' paws, my feet, and the blades of my lawn mower. Talk about being bad for the grass and soil! Glass never degrades either.
Hayduke Bomgarte
(1,965 posts)Every single day I walk around my front yard picking up the previous nights beer and soda bottles and cans,styrofoam coffee cups,fast food bags and napkins,burger wrappers,empty "big gulp" cups,the occasional used disposable diaper and assorted other trash.Cigarette butts have never been among the trash I pick up,nor have I ever noticed any.
The part of down-state Illinois I live in,is by far the worst I've ever seen for litter,of all the places I've lived in. Las Vegas,Houston,DFW,Denver,Fort Wayne,Paducah and Des Moines.
Cigarette butts?...Come on.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Tossing a cigarette should not be a FELONY in the United States of America.
cleanhippie
(19,705 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)The clue that it is an asinine post is that you won't even make the absurd argument you are trying to make, in words. It is all insinuations.
That's because you know you will sound like a fascist if you say that someone dropping a cigarette in a yard should be hauled away and charged with a felony.
former9thward
(32,028 posts)And quantity matters in everything. What a unscientific post.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)former9thward
(32,028 posts)From the dictionary: A general term used to refer to chemical compounds produced by industry which, if they are ingested or breathed in by humans, can cause physiological damage. The disposal of toxic wastes is a major environmental problem in the United States.
Cigarette butts are produced by individuals not industry. But go ahead and keep attacking science because you don't like the result.
damnedifIknow
(3,183 posts)Can you imagine the other inmates? " Hey dude what are you in for?" "Must be something bad you've been here a long time." "Ummm I threw a cigarette butt on the ground."
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Last edited Thu Aug 29, 2013, 01:15 PM - Edit history (1)
that has been injected into this once free country.
MNBrewer
(8,462 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Shame on you.
demwing
(16,916 posts)Ignoring the law multiple times brings the felony charge.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Shame on you.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Jackbooted police state, fascism-level absurd.
Shame on you.
demwing
(16,916 posts)I didn't make any judgement. Didn't agree or disagree - just corrected the false presumption that it was the tossing of a butt that carried a felony. That just isn't true.
Personally, I think the commercial manufacture and sale of cigarettes should be outlawed, and it fucking pisses me off when I have to breathe 2nd hand smoke or wade through a sea of butts wherever I go, but that has nothing to do with my views on whether a felony is suitable here.
So shame on you for being a presumptuous shamer
oldhippie
(3,249 posts)In Texas you can only get 6 months in jail for third offense of littering.
Don't Mess with Texas.
cleanhippie
(19,705 posts)Not so crazy now.
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)cleanhippie
(19,705 posts)Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)Should it be a ticket for littering. Yes. A felony that follows a person for life and hinders finding employment. No.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)HappyMe
(20,277 posts)What about all the broken glass, water bottles, sandwich wrappers...
temporary311
(955 posts)coming into the prisons some how, don't we?
Poll_Blind
(23,864 posts)PB
Robb
(39,665 posts)kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)I live in SoCal so I feel especially strongly about this.
kcr
(15,317 posts)Our jails were just sitting there empty and unused. What a waste that was. We need laws like this
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)Not easy to find a job with a felony on your record.
fredamae
(4,458 posts)When Mandated Environmental Education programs would work Better, Reduce litter of All kinds and Is So Much Cheaper for the Tax Payers!
It's costing Us about $3000.00 per month Per inmate and classes? You could teach ALL offenders in a month for Less than what Incarcerating One inmate for a month will cost you.
A two week volunteer services could be mandated to reduce clean-up costs.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)ladjf
(17,320 posts)about $25,000 per year. That's too much to pay for such a crime and it is unreasonable that a person would spend a year in jail for tossing 3 cig. butts.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)It should not be a felony, period.
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)Tikki
(14,558 posts)Tikki
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Good god.
Tikki
(14,558 posts)Or would you pick it up yourself while they watched?
Tikki
RobinA
(9,894 posts)my business. I have a life.
Tikki
(14,558 posts)it up? ...Or would you do it yourself while he watched from his kitchen window?
Litter is litter..
Litter consists of waste products that have been disposed improperly, without consent, at an inappropriate location.
Tikki
dionysus
(26,467 posts)I can't believe DUers are applauding the idea of locking people up for this...
I live on the corner of a main road and I despise cleaning up all the butts people throw.. but prison? for fucks sake. hit em with a fine if you catch em, that's good enough.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)The seas must be parting.
I'm glad you spoke up here.
snappyturtle
(14,656 posts)It's no wonder the world is at war. If people can be so vicious
about this the rest is at least explainable. I guess individual
polluters are not to be tolerated....but the corporate ones...
well, they get off.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)as our society becomes more and more authoritarian. You're right. In authoritarian states, the rules are for the little guy.
It makes you wonder if people are still even taught the difference between a felony and a misdemeanor and the reasons for the distinction.
It makes you wonder if people even consider the meaning of a free society anymore.
It makes you realize how limited people's thinking can become when the messaging of a society becomes so narrow and sick, to the point that some no longer seem able to conceive of any way to influence behavior other than severe punishment by authorities.
It is chilling as hell.
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)Tikki
(14,558 posts)killing and all...
Tikki
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)Tikki
(14,558 posts)how to filed strip a cigarette.
What other things should we throw on the ground...penalty free?
Tikki
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)There are an infinite number of easy things that people should do or should stop doing. The problem lies in your belief that coercion is the right method to can make any of them happen.
Tikki
(14,558 posts)I will work freely to stop the habit of littering and with an ultimate penalty..you work to allow littering with no penalty.
My choice..your choice.
Littering is not a victimless issue, though.
Tikki
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)Makes finding employment difficult for one thing.
There are lots of things between nothing and felony. Felony is absurd.
dawg
(10,624 posts)I favor making people pick up trash on the side of the road. Making cigarette butts a felony is a symptom of a deeply diseased society.
damnedifIknow
(3,183 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)That line about sums it up.
Thank you.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Hey smokers, the world is not your ashtray.
Sid
WI_DEM
(33,497 posts)having more convicted felons. Will the cops patrol the outsides of bars at night to watch for people breaking the law? Three convictions and have them do a weekend picking up liter or something like that.
hughee99
(16,113 posts)I'm surprised to see so much support here for the state imposing serious penalties for seemingly minor infractions, but I guess since it's targeting smokers, I shouldn't be that surprised.
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)Faryn Balyncd
(5,125 posts)dionysus
(26,467 posts)Zoeisright
(8,339 posts)Cigarette butts start fires that kill people.
Gidney N Cloyd
(19,842 posts)There was a phrase in the existing law, "nauseous or offensive matter of any kind or anything else of an unsightly or unsanitary nature," that would arguably have covered cigarette butts and they just made it more obvious.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)of throwing a cig butt out a window.
This will turn out well.
Evoman
(8,040 posts)Wouldn't some sort of heavy fine or community service be a better idea? A felony? Jail time? To harsh, man.
truebrit71
(20,805 posts)...for their own benefit of course....
But seriously, I think making it a felony to toss your fag-end into the street is a massive over-reach. I monumental fine makes more sense, especially if you're as broke as Illinois is, but jailing people, nope, I'm not okay with that..
backscatter712
(26,355 posts)It's pretty damned obvious that no matter what the law says, there's plenty of dumbfucks who'll flick their cigarette butts everywhere. They damned well should biodegrade, and I'd suggest that the EPA and other regulators require the tobacco industry make their products biodegradable.
KansDem
(28,498 posts)Officer: "That's right! So hold it right there..."
cbdo2007
(9,213 posts)bluedigger
(17,086 posts)No filters on roaches, at least.
benld74
(9,904 posts)a law allowing cops to pull you over IF they see you on the PHONE. Not sure about the ticket cost.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)Because that is even worse than cigarette butt litter, and if they are serious about cleaning the environment, they will crack down on polluters in the State of Illinois.
Rex
(65,616 posts)horrible fires here in Texas. I think it is a good idea for people to pay for the fires they start by throwing out their still lit cigs into dry grass.