Soapbox by Courtney Battistone
On a Saturday night, it’s easy to walk into your favourite bar or pub and get a table right away. Everyone is outside, smoking.
The bylaw that banned smoking in all workplaces as of Aug. 1 this year is a good thing. The breathable air at pubs, restaurants and bars is a definite change for the better.
Unfortunately, you’ll have to wade through cigarette butts up to your ankles to get inside. The price that Ottawa is paying to have clean air inside is dirty, butt-ridden streets outside.
Are bars and pubs blind to this problem? It seems simple to have receptacles outside for smokers. Some pubs have ‘butt stop’ devices – metal boxes with an opening in the side to throw a cigarette into. The person who installs them is likely turning a nice profit.
But where does the problem start? Are bars not providing enough receptacles for the cigarette butts? Or are the smokers being lazy? It’s like the chicken and the egg.
Lots of smokers will probably say that there isn’t anywhere for them to put their cigarette butts. It’s true; garbage cans aren’t the safest place to dispose of burning waste. Smokers need somewhere safe to put out their cigarettes.
Other smokers might say they’re creating jobs by creating a mess. Someone has to clean it up, right? But it seems that no one is.
Perhaps smokers are bitter because they have to walk all the way to the front door to go outside and have a smoke.
Perhaps they throw their butts on the ground as an act of defiance.
But other than just looking gross, cigarette butts can take as long as five years to biodegrade.
So, if one gets caught in the cracks in the sidewalk and the person who has to clean up doesn’t catch it, it’ll be staying there for a while.
There are probably lots of responsible smokers who take the time to put their cigarettes in the proper receptacle, but there seem to be more smokers who just add their butts to the ever-growing pile.
What is it going to take to solve this problem?
It seems simple – bars and pubs should give smokers a convenient place to dispose of their waste. Obviously, it’s not simple enough.