I was always amazed at how smokers I knew who otherwise wouldn’t litter never had a problem throwing their cigarette butts on the ground when they were done smoking.

(Interestingly, these people I knew were also the most vocal environmentalists of my friends, though I don’t think they ever caught on to the hypocricy.)

But that was then. Smoking has been fading into the background as a habit, and many of my friends who smoked have since moved on.

It’s 2014 now, and with the number of visible cigarette butts that littered our sidewalks and parking lots waning, it seems smokers and non-smokers alike have found a suitable replacement:

This is a photo I took in a parking lot today of a used floss pick. I took the picture because I see these things all over the place – most often in parking lots.

There are certain types of garbage that people will consciously take out of the cars and through into a garbage can. But used floss picks are apparently not worthy of the consideration, so people just throw them on the ground.

I’ve never studied the degradation properties of the cigarette butt, but I’m quite positive these plastic floss picks are here to stay.

Perhaps, as with cigarettes, the anti-floss lobby will gain enough traction with the people and they’ll stop feeling the need to carry their floss with them and flossing on-the-go will go the way of cigarettes.

Until then, we’ll get to enjoy the site of another used thing that’s spend time in other people’s mouths.