<story><title>Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash</title><url>https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/plastic-straw-ban-cigarette-butts-are-single-greatest-source-ocean-n903661</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>zaptheimpaler</author><text>I like the idea.. it is tricky to get right though. Cigarette butts smell a lot, so if smokers started carrying around 20 butts in their pack at work&amp;#x2F;home, non-smokers would not like it. Its hard to imagine modifying a pack cheaply enough to contain the smell.</text></item><item><author>simonebrunozzi</author><text>Simple solution, but thought to implement: do to cigarette butts what it has been done for empty glass bottles: each one has a deposit cost of, say, $0.20, and when you return them you get the money back.&lt;p&gt;Cigarette packs should be modified to allow for easy storage of used butts, so you can return it to the cigarette seller when you buy a new pack.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>phyzome</author><text>Would it smell worse than the smell the smoker already carries? I suppose it might, since some smokers are pretty careful not to get the smoke on their clothing. (You can still smell their lungs for like 5-10 minutes afterwards, though.)&lt;p&gt;(And... sorry to any smokers reading this. Not trying to shame you, but I want to be realistic about whether this would work or not.)</text></comment>
<story><title>Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash</title><url>https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/plastic-straw-ban-cigarette-butts-are-single-greatest-source-ocean-n903661</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>zaptheimpaler</author><text>I like the idea.. it is tricky to get right though. Cigarette butts smell a lot, so if smokers started carrying around 20 butts in their pack at work&amp;#x2F;home, non-smokers would not like it. Its hard to imagine modifying a pack cheaply enough to contain the smell.</text></item><item><author>simonebrunozzi</author><text>Simple solution, but thought to implement: do to cigarette butts what it has been done for empty glass bottles: each one has a deposit cost of, say, $0.20, and when you return them you get the money back.&lt;p&gt;Cigarette packs should be modified to allow for easy storage of used butts, so you can return it to the cigarette seller when you buy a new pack.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>netsharc</author><text>In Europe where people get their deposit back for bottles, the homeless (interestingly, not just them, a study in Germany said it also gave bored pensioners something to do) look in trash cans to find bottles to return. I remember reading an experiment where a city (I think in Canada) implemented a trial program to give people 6 cents per cigarette butt: they spent the money marked for the returns quicker than expected because the homeless people collected butts diligently.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a bit of a crazy world to make the homeless clean up pollution other people make, but even without this program there are (and will) still be homeless people...</text></comment>