“The birds will eat it.”

When I was little girl, I was told never to litter.  Whenever we had something unwanted in the car, we either put it in the garbage bag or if it was food, sometimes we would throw it out the window.  My mom would say “the birds will eat it” if it was something like a cracker or apple.  Gum was garbage, because birds/animals wouldn’t eat it and of course anything else that was inedible was garbage.  So, my thoughts are that if the wildlife can’t eat it, it shouldn’t be thrown out the car window.

Considering this, and the fact that I consider myself environmentally concerned, it bothers me a lot when I see people throwing trash out the car window.  Usually it is the occasional jerk that doesn’t care and throws a candy wrapper out or a receipt.  But there is one thing I see almost daily and that is people throwing cigarettes out the car window.  They flick them out (almost always lit) as if it’s not littering.  Do birds eat cigarettes?  Do they not count as litter?