Our front door is pretty far from the street. I looked outside today, and noticed someone has deposited a cigarette butt into our front porch planter. Another inconsiderate slob strikes! How long do I need to look at someone else's trash on my own property before the ugliness will "decompose"?

@bassman You said "Cigarette butts are minimal when it come to litter". Since I have picked up many thousands of cigarette butts in my life on my own property (and I am a non-smoker) I disagree! Perhaps a $1 deposit on each cigarette would solve the problem. Turn in your butts, you get 90 cents back. Use the other 10 cents to force littering smokers to pick up trash. Works for me!

Living in a location smack in the middle of Janesville with few homes but plenty of traffic, I've seen just about everything dumped across the street (a wooded area). Bottles, cans, and fast-food bags are simply drive-by waste. Some take the time to unload appliances and furniture (don't want to pay a dumping fee apparently). I saw one person at dusk open his door, let a dog out, and drive away. One morning at about 5 am I woke to a barking dog. Thinking it was a neighbor's, I turned over and tried to get back to sleep. After some time, I decided to investigate. In this case, someone left a dog in its kennel at the curb. Who knows what this person was thinking. Clearly, there are people out there that simply don't care.

Change the fine for littering to 10 hours picking up trash while wearing an orange jump suit - first offense. Add 10 hours to the penalty for each subsequent offense. Sentences to be served at the convenience of the Sheriff's department for monitoring the offenders in batches, not the litter convicts.

Cigarette butts are minimal when it come to litter,come on ! This world is becoming lazier every day,and throwing junk out on the streets yards ect,will only increase unfortunately. I have had the same punk drive by my hous several times and throw either soda cans out or Mc'Donald's bags,trust me I will catch up to him one day. It makes me sick to see the slobs at the river as well bait containers bottles you name it everywhere. SLOBS plain and simple !!!!!

How come you folks missed the dirty diaper?

Iowa has a lot fewer smokers, so maybe we should work on that to reduce all those butts littering the streets.
http://www.smokefree.gov/map.aspx

enforce existing codes and increase fines for repeat offenders...

Yesterday I went to the grocery store. When I got back to my car, I noticed that someone had decided to leave their entire pile of fast food trash right next to my car. There are just some people that like to live in their own filth.
Cigarette butts are a special case. As has been stated, usually they are still lit, so there's that danger. And they do decompose slowly, mainly because of the filter. But no matter how long it takes to decompose, it is still litter and it is ugly to see. Maybe the state can take some of the tax money from cigarettes to pay for the cleanup, and have smokers convicted of violating the smoking ordinance do the community service.

cig butts the birds put in their nests for bedding.they decomposs when wet eventually.those who throw out still lit ones I dont like.

Maybe the inconsiderate, lazy, slobs, AKA Litter Bugs, should be put in the “orange jumpers” and be forced to pick up the litter. Just a thought.

The other night my wife and I went through Milton AV Culver's And watched a very obese employee leaving work or going on break, get into his car and toss a pop can out of his car into the parking lot! At his place of employment! when the drive through was full! I told the cashier what I seen, I hope she told the manager.

Can I text in their plate number?

good idea, lets get the state to start a campaign on litter, then walker can start another bogus agency, to appoint some of his Buddy's, to grant loans, for clean up.

My hubby has a delivery job in homes, and oh my gosh!! some of these places have their trash all over the floor...you name it and its on there, real filth!!

Yes, let's have prisoners cleaning up litter along city streets. We can call the program something catchy, like "Checking out the 'hood".

"lazy" I mean. So sorry indyfan.I agree put the men and women in orange to work. I also agree why would a letter work. They don't give a crap to begin with. Do you really think a letter will help. That letter will probably end up in the gutter anyway? Do you see the homes with piles and piles of crap on their porch. No respect for the LANDLORDS property or themselves. You should see some of the vehicles that get traded. YIKES. More trash in them than my trash can at home.

Sure stop being lazt and toss your trash when you get home. Another entitlement? Somebody else can clean up after me?

I recall there were signs all over the roads, including Janesville that said something like "Do Not Litter, $200 Fine". Especially on Blackbridge road near the dump and the highways. Whatever happened to those anyways, and why did they get taken down or no longer enforced?

What good does it do to "send a letter"? If people don't give a crap if they throw their butts out the window, do you think they care about the letter? This practice irritates me as well. I know smokers that say they throw their cig butts out the window because they don't want the waste or smell in their own cars....really?? So, lets pollute the environment instead. Just more proof that this country is overall lazy and people only care about themselves.

mrsdamracefan - it is not true that the cigarette butts decompose quickly. The filter does not. It looks like hell, and I don't want to see it. Also, throwing butts out moving car windows is stupid and dangerous. They have been known to fly into the back seat of the same moving vehicle and burn occupants and objects. Just don't do it.

Nothing like stepping out of my car into a big glob of spit out chewing tobacco. Then there is all of the gum that former smokers spit out all over the place. I would rather see cigarette butts.

I had some dirty smoker flick their butt out the window and it went across my hood. Its just reflex to them they dont even think. Luckily for the guy I am as mellow as I am and didnt care.

Enforce the existing laws. Raise the fine to littering to $1000 or more. Move to a better area, get away from the lowlifes. As an earlier poster said, it is absurd to waste taxpayer money on a litter hotline just to send out nice letters asking the scumbag to stop doing that. Not much of that out here, not many lowlifes out here. Down the road a few miles, once in a while I see trash bags thrown out full of trash. Scumbags from town or some trailer park, undoubtedly.

I don't see why anyone would throw trash bags in the ditch, everyone has some kind of trash pickup nowadays. I pick them up, it is too irritating to see them.

In regard to the decomposition of cigarettes butts, the time it takes is variable depending on the brand, but I did find this from the Global Acetate Manufacturers Association
"Previous work has demonstrated that cigarette filters biodegrade readily in
environments where mixed microbial populations can thrive"
http://www.acetateweb.com/pdf/Environmen...

Many states, in fact most states have these campaigns. Im not sure how effective they are in reducing the amount of litter found on road ways and streets. But this would be a great task for our state prisoners.

Go to Florida- on the side of the road (i.e. FL Turnpike, you will find criminals, dressed in their prison orange jumpers picking up trash under the watchful eye of the boss.....

Many states, in fact most states have these campaigns. Im not sure how effective they are in reducing the amount of litter found on road ways and streets. But this would be a great task for our state prisoners.

Go to Florida- on the side of the road (i.e. FL Turnpike, you will find criminals, dressed in their prison orange jumpers picking up trash under the watchful eye of the boss.....

Some good points. However I`ve heard that cig butts take 20 yrs to decompose because of the filter. Then they can also get into the waterways easily and fish eat them. Not sure if this is true but sounds reasonable to me.

The great majority of people don't litter. But it doesn't take much litter to make an area look bad. The remedy is for the police to strictly enforce the litter ordinances. This should also apply to people and their dog waste. Quality of life.

I guess I live in Utopia. No litter issues where I live because my neighbors value their properties & take pride in ownership. To me that's where the problem is. People don't own their homes or have a stake in the community and just don't care. I think it's ridiculous to spend taxpayer money fielding calls on a litter line & sending out letters to alleged violators.

I am actually surprised there are not more comments. My husband was a terrible one for cigarette butts, but really they decompose a plastic bottle does not. Much of the trash you find and see is society laziness. To damn lazy to find a trash bin. Also the flat landers who use are great highways and bi-ways have no guilt when it comes to throwing there fast food bags and containers out the window going down the interstate, or better yet at a stop sign while they wait for traffic. We are all a bunch of laziness that is why we have obesity, and health issues (another blog).

This isn't the first time that you have ranted about those nasty litter-bugs. I find that the most visible litter in my neighborhood is in the form of runaway newspapers. I believe it is appropriate that you press for the litter-bug hotline since the presses in your line of business produce much of the litter and make profits from it.