Yesterday, The Mill looked into the problem of smoking and possible reasons behind why it is so hard to stop existing smokers and first-time smokers. Today we will into the problem of littering.

This time the problem is caused by a combination of laziness and apathy which continues to plague our society. So I can link this properly with yesterday’s article, let’s discuss the problem of cigarette butt litter. I have recently seen more than one person throw their cigarette butt out of their car window. This made me very angry.

According to Planet Ark 7 billion cigarette butts are littered in Australia each year. That’s just over 2 cigarette butt for every person on the planet. It is also believed that 4,500 bush-fires are started by improper disposal of cigarette butts.

I’m not sure what TV show I heard this from, but I remember hearing that even caged animals are clever enough to do their business in the corner rather than in the middle of their cage. We are living in a much bigger cage and yet we litter our cage with cigarette butts, chip packets and other waste without thought.

The annoying thing about littering is that it is not hard to not do. What is so different about throwing a cigarette butt out the window to dumping toxic waste on the side of the road? Both actions are reckless and in my opinion, border on evil. People should know better, the do know better, but they do it anyway.