I live in a country where smoking has generally been on the decline for a while now but even still I see thousands of cigarette butts in just about any public place. They litter the sides of the road, bus shelters, alleyways, outside clubs, bars and pubs, public toilets, park benches and just about everywhere else. Its even extending to disposable vapes now as well.
For the most part, where I live doesn’t have that much of other kinds of litter about and is generally clean. And most public bins and all smoking areas have ashtrays and dedicated cigarette bins so it wouldn’t be hard to dispose of them properly like any other piece of rubbish and even then there’s often cigarette butts within sight of the bins and ashtrays.
Why then do people have a completely different approach for cigarettes?
It depends. Some people grew up tossing them and old habits die hard. That was less of an issue when it was some paper and leaf, but definitely more of an issue today with filters and such. In places where there’s more enforcement, people tend to carry pocket ashtrays and actually clean up after themselves. Improving enforcement and education would probably help reduce littering.
Back many moons ago when I smoked I preferred unfiltered Lucky Strikes. I generally put them in ash trays anywhere I could find one, but if one wasn’t available in the vicinity I had no qualms with dropping it and giving it a smash and twist with my whole to put it out and effectively destroy it. One rain, or even just a good fog, and it no longer existed. I agree I think this habit was continued when filters came into fashion and it’s just not equivalent at all.