Please Put Your Butt in Your Pocket

Here's an invention idea, free for the taking.

Smoking doesn't bother me too much. Okay, maybe it does. But I'm not one of those people who make loud hacking sounds (as in, "yer killin' me!") when smoke drifts too closely.

What does irk me is the disposal problem of cigarette butts. At both of our stores, I am constantly battling the butt problem (in more ways than one, I’m sorry to say!). You’ll often see me on the sidewalk extracting ciggie butts with my Nifty Picker Upper wand claw thingie. Or pushing around my French street sweeper’s broom to get them into the gutter. Ugh. After a busy weekend there will be butts in the planters, butts on the sidewalk, and butts on the windowsills.

Having observed smokers putting out cigarettes, I realize that there is no easy way to dispose of the thing, other than flinging it on the street somewhere, or shoving it into the dirt of the nearest planter. So, here’s my product idea, with name development, free for the taking. The Butt Bagg. The Butt Protector. The Buttvelope. It’s a small, foil-lined gusseted envelope, maybe 1” x 2” with a sticky self-seal edge. You keep a supply in your pocket and deposit the butt in one when done. The foil part puts out the flame, you seal the end, then put it back in your pocket until you find a suitable garbage can to dispose of it all. Maybe not so environmentally friendly, but neither is throwing them on the street.