Butt Donors Sought
Monday May 26, 2008
If you have even half the juvenile mindset with which I am stuck, perhaps your first thought also ran to pounds of flesh that could be donated and, indeed, never missed. However, the butts at issue here are from cigarettes--manufactured cigarettes that have filters, to be specific, not roll-your-owns.
Tasmanian artist Adrian Avenell said in a radio interview that he's creating an anti-smoking piece. He intends to cover a 14-3/4 x 6 ft. section of pavement and gutter with used cigarette butts, as well as constructing a coffin out of the same. To accomplish this, Avenell calculates he will need 438,000 butts--a number based on an adult smoking 30 cigarettes per day for 40 years. He has, at last report, gotten 20 butts collected.
Here is where smokers can help. Avenell has checked, and anyone in Australia can mail used butts as long as they're been sealed in a plastic bag first. (I don't know if people in other countries can mail used cigarette butts to Tasmania, perhaps someone will leave a comment if this is possible.) Avenell lives in Devonport, and can reached at (03) 6427 2978.
Oh, and, standard public disclaimer in case anyone has spent the last four decades on another planet and is only just catching up on the latest medical news: smoking is bad for one's health.
Related Reading: Image © StockTrek/Getty Images
Comments
it’s really too bad that there are so many who still have used cigarette butts to donate. These people really need to think about quitting before it does irrepairable damage to their health.
Phil, I agree that it’s too bad, but don’t know any smokers who haven’t thought almost constantly about quitting. It’s unfair, in my opinion, to imply that all smokers are just puffing away blithely with nary a thought towards consequences. Health is the biggest issue, naturally, but also of concern are social reforms, legislation prohibiting smoking, negative public reaction and adverse effects on personal finances.
Perhaps contributing to an anti-smoking work, and seeing the reality of 438,000 ugly, used cigarette butts making up an awful scene containing a coffin will give someone the impetus to quit, once and for all. That is why I felt this project merited attention.
I feel there’s a certain amount of irony in needing cigarette butts from smokers to make an anti-smoking work. Of course, if there weren’t any smokers, there wouldn’t be a need for the work, I suppose.