No ifs ands or butts - probing smoker psychology

I’ve been scratching my head for a couple of years now over the profusion of cigarette butts that collect on the ground.

Litter, I understand.  Most of the time, litter does not result from people wantonly throwing trash on the ground.  Trash cans overfill, and trash falls off the top.  Crows scavenge food wrappers from the bin and don’t think to replace them when they’ve finished eating the tasty morsels.  Cups are forgotten on the tops of cars, or spill unseen from the side of the seat when the door is opened.  These are not intentional acts of littering.

Cigarette butts, on the other hand, are put there by smokers.  The cigarette is smoked to the nub, and the burning thing is dropped on the ground and not picked up again.

Why?  Why would presumably normal intelligent people, most of whom would probably never stoop to throwing litter on the ground, believe it is acceptable to throw these artifacts to the pavement and leave them there?  And of all things, why something that when combined with rainwater results in toxic chemicals being carried into waterways with adverse impact to marine life?

I have contemplated approaching smokers to ask them this question.  I have not done so; not because I am afraid to approach people in public, but because I cannot imagine a way of phrasing the question without coming across as antagonistic and preachy.  Maybe I am antagonistic and preachy.  I just don’t want to ruin somebody’s day or have them ruin mine, so I keep quiet and wonder.

In the absence of actual evidence, I have speculated and come up with hypotheses.  Some of these are supported by research – this seems to be a common question in online forums.

1. A cigarette is a burning object and is not safe to place in a receptacle which may contain flammable materials.  If there is no ashcan specifically made to contain burning materials, then putting the butt on the ground is the safe thing to do.  A corollary of this line of thinking is that people who maintain public facilities have the obligation to provide proper disposal for flammable materials in all public spaces, and if these are not provided then a smoker cannot be held responsible for littering.   (Question: if you put out the offending item by stepping on it, isn’t it ready for disposal?  Or does the fact that it has been on the ground now make it dirty and offensive to touch? )
2.    Cigarettes are thrown from cars because butts left in the ashtray create a worse smell in the car than the residue left by the smoke.
3.  Cigarettes are small and seem like an innocuous thing to leave behind.
4.  Piles of butts gather in certain areas – outside businesses or at park and ride lots – and the presence of butts on the ground creates the perception that it’s ok – after all, what’s one more butt where there are already so many?

While all of these seem plausible, I’d like to advance another theory.  Smoking in our society has become less and less acceptable over the years, beginning with the surgeon general’s report on smoking and health in 1964, and smokers, already guilty over their addictions, are more and more marginalized – pushed out of public buildings and their own workspaces, made to feel inferior, and maybe even invisible.  Could this be a smoker’s small and subconscious way of showing up, of saying “I’m here?”  Could leaving a butt in a pile of butts left by other smokers be a way of expressing solidarity against a world where smoking is a badge of dishonor?

In any case, I try to pick up one or more butts every day in addition to other trash.  Join me, will you?