 "Photo: Rebecca Moore")
Smokers leaving their trash on the ground is repugnant.
I am a smoker, but I always try to find an ashtray or smoker’s cease-fire, and I have never thrown an empty cigarette pack on the ground.
One day while walking across our beautiful campus, I passed the library and saw an empty cigarette pack that had been thrown on the ground and stomped on, yet there was a trash can 20 feet away.
It infuriates me that some people are so disrespectful. Don’t claim you have school spirit then flick a cigarette away or throw your pack down.
You have to remember that this is your campus. This is my campus. This campus belongs to everyone. Treat it like your home.
This campus actually is home to some students. Do you throw cigarette butts down inside your house? No, you have an ashtray for that.
So what if you have to walk 20 feet out of your way to throw a pack in the trash or put a cigarette in the smoker’s cease-fire. You’re a smoker, you need the exercise.
If you don’t want to walk out of your way, just keep the cigarette in your hand until you reach your destination. It’s a pretty safe bet that wherever you are going will have a place for cigarette disposal.
If you just finished your pack of cigarettes and are not near a trash can, then put the pack in your pocket or backpack and throw it away when you reach a trash can.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not claiming sainthood here. I am not claiming that I have never flicked a cigarette butt when I am on campus. I, however, do my best to always find the proper receptacle for my trash.
Also, please be respectful of the non-smokers on campus. At least try to blow your smoke in the opposite direction or wait until they have passed before even taking a puff.
Does anyone remember that last semester there was a petition to make this a smoke-free campus? If smokers are not respectful of this campus, we may lose our privileges.
In the summer of 2009, Tarrant County College banned smoking across the board, on all campuses. Students, faculty and staff are allowed to smoke in their cars, but no ‘smoking remnants’ are allowed to leave the car, i.e. butts, ashes, smoke.
University of Texas at Arlington has initiated a campus-wide ban as well, effective August 2011. Many other colleges are following suit.
If we smokers are not more respectful of where we smoke and what we do with our trash, then eventually we may not be able to smoke anywhere except our own houses or cars, maybe.
Texas Wesleyan has gone to great lengths to cater to smokers by installing the smoker’s cease-fire receptacles in strategic locations. The least we can do is thank them for their consideration by using the ash trays and receptacles.
Being a smoker, I understand that you can’t always be at a designated smoking area because you are trying to get from one class on one end of campus to another class on the other end, but whenever possible, please do try to use the designated smoking areas. Not only is it polite and cuts down on trash, but it also shows others that you are trying to be respectful of them and this campus.
You also have to remember that cigarette butts are not biodegradable. Cigarette filters may look like cotton, but are made of cellulose acetate, a plastic that takes between 18 months and 500 years to degrade, according to cigarettelitter.org.
The Centers for Disease Control has determined that approximately 25 percent of adult Americans, about 46 million, are smokers. Cigarette butts may seem small, but butts add up, and that is severely affecting our environment, according to cigarettelitter.org.
Remember those numbers the next time you finish your cigarette.
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