Tossing A Cigarette Butt Will Soon Become A Felony In Illinois

[damnedifIknow]

"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 state’s litter control law. (The same fine applies for a second offense, but if they’re 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 can’t 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]

1. I would prefer they put them on litter detail for six months.

Smoke all you want if that's your thing but our city and towns are not your ashtray.

[damnedifIknow]

3. A year in jail?

That's going way too far in my opinion.

[Arctic Dave]

4. I agree.

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]

55. +1, n/t

[juajen]

2. I have family members and strangers walking down my street that throw them in my yard.

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]

5. The entire cigarette is biodegradable and good for soil and plants.

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]

21. That's bullshit

n/t

[kestrel91316]

40. That is a complete crock of shit. Cigarette filters are not ok, and are a huge blight on beaches

not just here in SoCal but around the world. Wildlife ingest them and die. The white fibers inside are PLASTIC.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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 differ—some 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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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%).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://intraweb.stockton.edu/eyos/ehs/content/docs/smoking/Envl%20Butt%20Facts%20%203.pdf

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I don't know why I bother. You won't bother to read this, and neither will your smoker friends.

[SidDithers]

48. I think the poster was showing how ridiculous the pro-smoker info on the internet can be...

snooper2 rarely posts without tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Sid

[dionysus]

62. whooooooosh, goes the sarcasm over your head!

[frazzled]

6. What about plastic bags, batteries, and straws?

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]

28. None of those things can start wildfire conflagrations.

[pipi_k]

36. That is the one thing

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]

38. It didn't say only lit butts were subject ...

to this law. It says tossing a cigarette butt out the window while driving. That could well be an extinguished cigarette.

[joeybee12]

63. All those things are...according to the litter law...

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]

82. Silly me. I thought 'THE LAW' had a philosophy of minimizing damage.

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]

7. Gee, wonder if I can get my city to make throwing beer bottles a felony?

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]

22. ^THIS^

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]

8. Every reply so far is avoiding the point.

Tossing a cigarette should not be a FELONY in the United States of America.

[cleanhippie]

11. Shoul illegally dumping toxic waste be a felony?

[woo me with science]

13. What an asinine post.

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]

18. A cigarette butt is not toxic waste.

And quantity matters in everything. What a unscientific post.

[kestrel91316]

41. Ye they are. Toxins from cigarettes cling to the little plastic fibers in the filter.

[former9thward]

54. No, they are not.

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]

12. I agree

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]

49. It is a sick, creepy, authoritarian mentality

Last edited Thu Aug 29, 2013, 01:15 PM - Edit history (1)

that has been injected into this once free country.

[MNBrewer]

23. Reckless endangerment

http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/cigbuttimpacts.htm

[woo me with science]

26. See posts 13 and 16.

Shame on you.

[demwing]

29. It isn't

Ignoring the law multiple times brings the felony charge.

[woo me with science]

34. OUTRAGEOUS to make it a felony.

Shame on you.

[kestrel91316]

42. Nope. What's outrageous is the cavalier attitude that littering all day every day is no biggie.

[woo me with science]

45. Absurd. Not just absurd, but Twilight Zone absurd.

Jackbooted police state, fascism-level absurd.

Shame on you.

[demwing]

51. No shame here

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]

9. Good ....

In Texas you can only get 6 months in jail for third offense of littering.

Don't Mess with Texas.

[cleanhippie]

10. No, a class 4 felony for dumping toxic waste illegally.

Not so crazy now.

[Marrah_G]

24. Sorry, I find your view on this to be absurd

[cleanhippie]

83. Are you aware of what is actually IN a used cigarette filter?

[Marrah_G]

84. I find your view on this to be absurd

Should it be a ticket for littering. Yes. A felony that follows a person for life and hinders finding employment. No.

[AngryAmish]

14. and people wonder why Illinois sucks so bad...

[HappyMe]

15. How stupid.

What about all the broken glass, water bottles, sandwich wrappers...

[temporary311]

16. Gotta keep a steady stream of new revenue

coming into the prisons some how, don't we?

[Poll_Blind]

19. ^ THIS. +1000

PB

[Robb]

17. AUS$25K and a year in jail in Oz for tossing a butt during a fire ban. nt

[kestrel91316]

44. Now THAT'S a law with teeth. Good on the Aussies.

I live in SoCal so I feel especially strongly about this.

[kcr]

20. Well, thank goodness

Our jails were just sitting there empty and unused. What a waste that was. We need laws like this

[Marrah_G]

25. Good way to throw more people out of the employment pool

Not easy to find a job with a felony on your record.

[fredamae]

27. Sure, expand sentencing FOR the PIC

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]

30. fines, yes. time in jail, no. Cigarette butts= fire hazard.

[ladjf]

31. This law, as it now stands, will not be enforced. The one year in jail would cost the government

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. It can be selectively enforced, which is the problem.

It should not be a felony, period.

[Egalitarian Thug]

60. Criminalize the public. Isolate them from each other. Create widespread fear and mistrust. n/t

[Tikki]

33. GOOD and whatever makes them stop that despicable habit..

Tikki

[woo me with science]

35. Got your jackboots on?

Good god.

[Tikki]

39. If you witnessed someone throwing a cigarette butt on your lawn...would you ask them to pick it up?

Or would you pick it up yourself while they watched?



Tikki

[RobinA]

46. I'd Go About

my business. I have a life.

[Tikki]

52. What if the neighbor brought his doggie over to pooh on your lawn?...Would you ask him to clean....

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]

65. while we don't see eye to eye on much, i'm with you totally on this one.

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]

72. No kidding.

The seas must be parting.

I'm glad you spoke up here.

[snappyturtle]

81. I agree with you that the felony thing is outrageous.

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]

90. +1 It is a terrifying mindset to see in Americans

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]

57. We could just kill them.

[Tikki]

61. That's just sad...

killing and all...


Tikki

[Egalitarian Thug]

64. As sad as approving of ruining a life for your own petty prejudices? n/t

[Tikki]

66. It is so easy to NOT throw a cigarette butt on the ground...Maybe we could start a campaign to teach

how to filed strip a cigarette.

What other things should we throw on the ground...penalty free?


Tikki

[Egalitarian Thug]

70. Evasive.

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]

75. The ole 'free will' thing, eh?

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]

78. Was the irony of your reply intentional? n/t

[Marrah_G]

85. Do you know what happens to people with felony records?

Makes finding employment difficult for one thing.

There are lots of things between nothing and felony. Felony is absurd.

[dawg]

37. Some people love rigid, strict rules with frightful consequences.

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]

43. Beware, the cigarette butt police are watching.

[woo me with science]

68. "Making cigarette butts a felony is a symptom of a deeply diseased society."

That line about sums it up.

Thank you.

[SidDithers]

47. Good...

Hey smokers, the world is not your ashtray.

Sid

[WI_DEM]

50. While I hate it when people throw their ciggie buts I hate even more the idea of

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]

53. Technically, it's a class 4 felony for 3 cigarette butts.

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]

56. Everyone's a criminal in a police state. n/t

[Faryn Balyncd]

58. Send in the LA Sheriff Dept!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3556084

[dionysus]

59. wouldn't the standard fine for littering be enough?

[Zoeisright]

67. Good.

Cigarette butts start fires that kill people.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

69. All they did was clarify the existing litter law.

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]

71. Passing dumb laws like this should be a felony, too.

[The Straight Story]

73. So now we will have officers pulling over black people on suspicion

of throwing a cig butt out a window.

This will turn out well.

[Evoman]

74. wow, too harsh.

Wouldn't some sort of heavy fine or community service be a better idea? A felony? Jail time? To harsh, man.

[truebrit71]

76. As an ex-smoker I think all smokers should be sent to behaviour modification camps...

...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]

77. Here's a question: Why aren't cigarettes completely biodegradable?

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]

79. Officer: "Hold it right there! You're under arrest!" Citizen: "But, officer...!"

Officer: "That's right! So hold it right there..."

[cbdo2007]

80. Good, littering is littering. The cigarette butts aren't going to pick up themselves.

[bluedigger]

86. We may have to start a general amnesty for pot smokers to make room in prisons.

No filters on roaches, at least.

[benld74]

87. Illinois also recently passed,,,

a law allowing cops to pull you over IF they see you on the PHONE. Not sure about the ticket cost.

[closeupready]

88. Other states should sue Illinois for extra-territorial pollution.

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]

89. Even with the chemicals they put in cigs, they still start some

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.