Please. Either enforce the no smoking in public places bylaw, or put the fucking ashtrays back. Did you really think that smokers were going to say, “Oh. There’s no appropriate receptacle here in which to deposite my butt when I have finished enjoying my cigarette. I guess I better not light one up.”? At every bus stop, every mall entrance, every park bench, the ground is littered with a carpet of cigarette butts. It is utterly disgusting. Put the fucking ashtrays back, Kelly. It’s the lesser evil.
This article appears in May 15-21, 2008.
i had a borrowed car the last few months, hence havent really gotten to walk downtown, but did the other day to enjoy the weather. i walked 5 mins out of my way to make sure there were no non-smokers/impressionable minors around me or downwind of me and lit up. i get that people hate smokers, i hated them before i smoked, so i try my hardest to be respectful. my cigarette gets down to the filter and i start to carry it toward a garbage bin. but on a quite busy downtown street, there were none. so i walk for about 5 or 6 blocks carrying my smoke like a torch and FINALLY find, not a garbage can (that was a few blocks later) but a sand ashtray outside an office building. now what if i didnt have such a guilt complex, or had a big peice of garbage? what if i was average joe or jane litterbug and didnt feel like dragging the carcass of my take-out lunch all the way back to the office with me?they need to put ashtrays and MORE FUCKING GARBAGE CANS on busy downtown streets. the only thing Kelly is good for is meetings. meetings on everything, action on nothing.
Agreed on the more garbage can issue. I picked up some coffee cups on the street once trying to make Halifax a little cleaner, but I found myself carrying them for like 20 minutes before I found a trash bin. Not doing that again…
There are butt receptacles located in front of my place of work, where the smokers enjoy their fresh air, but the ground is still littered with their garbage.