Wouldn't the world be a better place without chewing gum?

Mailman

Right, we've effectively banned plastic bags by taxing them and the place is better for it.

Spent 15 minutes last night trying to get chewing gum off the bottom of my shower shoes and my mind turned to thinking WTF good does chewing gum do for the world, the environment we live in and the pavements we walk on.

So how about putting a 50 cent levy on each packet of chewing gum sold or better still just ban it completely. Fining people for possession may be overkill.

Is there anyone out there who is pro Gum?
Does anyone really believe that it's a substitute for cleaning your teeth or freshmints? Is blowing bubblegum a mark of sophistication?

This is intended to be a semi-serious post/rant.

Personally, I'd be happy to see it banned.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

netwhizkid

Hi,
I think that chewing gum should not be levied, it is not as bad as Dog S**T, yuck, i was walking to mass one morning in my best suit, and my €350.00 leather shoes and some how or another i managed to step into a masive plonker, of the disgusting stuff, but back on topic maybe some form of ban on chewing gum in public might be more appropiate, Or biodegradable gum that might help,

P.S Please don't laugh about my encounter with a dogs early Xmas present to me !!

Regards netwhizkid

The Saint

Dog **** can easily be removed. Chewing gum on the otherhand sticks to and destroys everything and takes a fierce amount of effort to remove. I think chewing it is also very unattractive and wouldnt care if there was a total ban on it.

colinsky

my wife sometimes gets motion sickness in a bus or bumpy car ride, and find that chewing gum helps. so she'd have to pay more if there were a fine, without getting any "benefit".

the different with the plastic bag thing is that there is another option (bringing your own bag). the other option to gum is...?

Typedef

Yes true enough chewing gum is extremely difficult to remove from the ground and is in a sense therefore an environmental problem of sorts, I accept that, though I should think that teaching people where ye olde green bin is as opposed to banning chewing gum is in fact the correct answer.

Sticking on my Judge Dredd high heeled red shoes, I have to say to you girls that I will arbitrarily delete spam posts, posts with no content pertaining to the thread posts that are stupid and or abusive, or any conglomeration/concatonation thereof. You know well what will and will not swing, so don't let yourselves down.

nuff said.

Mailman

alternative is chewy sweets, chewits, etc....

Typedef, now while everybody knew that they should dispose of plastic bags in the bin that didn't stop then flying about and littering the country. A certain proportion of the public couldn't be trusted to dispose of them safely so the levy was applied. The same logic applies to gum.
Education wasn't the answer for plastic bags, it isn't the answer here.

The Saint

The sad fact is that most people dont give a toss, so some sort of levys should be put in place. Its like bins are provided on every street, but there is more rubbish on the streets than in the bins.

Dazzer

I chew gum for many reasons.

• To help my nerves
• To help me cut down on smokes
• Chewing gum generates natural saliva which helps my teeth
• To get rid of my bad breath after having a smoke

They are just a few of the reasons why I chew gum. I cannot chew any chewy sweets as the amount of sugar in them really really hurts my teeth and sweets would not remove a smokey breath.

The main reason a levy was put on bags was pollution. Does chewing gum generate pollution? :rolleyes:
Personally I think this is the most stupid suggestion I have heard / read all day.

The Saint

Dazzer, have you even looked at the ground around town. Do you not think its disgusting? If people just figured out what bins are for there would be no problem.

daveirl

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mike65

I'd back a tax on gum, its true I don't chew the stuff but its a blight in urban areas no question.

While on the subject anyone like to see a return to glass bottles with a return deposit? To cut down on the huge number of plastic bottles that festoon Ireland.

Mike.

Typedef

While on the subject anyone like to see a return to glass bottles with a return deposit? To cut down on the huge number of plastic bottles that festoon Ireland.

Mike.

Definitely Mike, a deposit system would seem the only quasi logical way to reduce the exorbitant amounts of bottles wasted in Ireland bar actually recycling, when I say bar I should really say in conjunction with recycling.

It seems so hypocritical to me, that Ireland sells itself as a beauty spot and yet, has such a bad record on keeping the environment clean, especially in the area of recycling.

A chewing gum tarif still seems overkill to me, however I do accept that people will not act out of the goodness of their souls to negate chewing gum pollution, just like people would not act out of the goodness of their souls to reduce the consumption of plastic bags, so logically speaking yes, bring on the tariff.

Dazzer

Yes I agree its disgusting but if the goverment provided more bins then the problem might not be as bad.

Smoke butts are equally as disgusting so should we add another tax incentive to prevent people from smoking? Or hasn't that already been done, yet thousands upon thousands of people still smoke? The same sollution applys to the above. More bins with ash tray's built in.

The govermant should advertise about littering a bit more and provide the correct facilitys if they dont want people to litter.

The council could also do thier fecking job ...