Nubs and Ashes

[btrout]

I've seen a lot of threads recently beginning with "How do you...?" or "What do you...?" and it got me thinking and reminiscing…

One of the nastier tasks that goes along with enjoying a fine cigar is disposing of one's ashes and nubs when the ashtray gets full, or one has finished the last cigar of the day. When I first started smoking about 3 years ago, being an outdoors only smoker, I began tossing my ashes in the grass (or snow), much like one might sow grass seed, albeit from an ashtray. To this day I follow the same ashing routine. I never see the ashes in the grass the following day and I never get a whiff of their odor.

However, the butts, stubs, or nubs are a different thing. When I first began I realized just how stinky the butts could be. So I began disposing of them in a glass or hard plastic jar with a lid that sealed well. Problem was, I had this jar with ugly cigar butts sitting in my garage. Opening the jar released some really foul odors. And when the jar was full I had to find some other jar to begin filling up. I hated asking my wife for a jar, fearing she might start to question the number of cigars I have enjoyed since the last time I needed a jar.

I got tired of this routine after about a year and started thinking of some other way to dispose of the stinky things. One night, nearing the end of a smoke, I was walking down the street drawing the last few mouthfuls from my stick. I looked down and noticed the storm sewer in front of my house. It looked like a fine place to dispose of my nub. I didn't think I'd ever smell it lying down at the bottom of the sewer pipe. I also found it sort of enjoyable trying to toss the nub perfectly through the one inch slots in storm sewer grate. This “nub-offing” technique worked well for awhile. That is until one night, when I was finished smoking for the night, it was pouring down rain. Running through the wet grass to hurry to the storm grate was not as enjoyable as the first time walking by. And then there were the winter months when the temperature was many degrees below freezing and the wind was swirling snow around in tiny tornados, creating knee-high snow drifts. I had to have a better plan and I immediately came up with one.

I began tossing my stubs out into the snow. It was fun to watch them skid across the hard-crusted snow and come to a halt. The first few times I did this I wondered if they would just melt themselves through the crust of the snow and end up buried. They never did. One or two of my nubs spent a week or two lying on top of the snow, but they all eventually disappeared, somewhere. If the snow was soft the butt would simply disappear and never be seen again.

When spring came around and the snow had melted away I continued tossing my stubs into the grass. Each time I would throw them as far as I possibly could. Sometimes I reached the street with my throw, but most times I just cleared the circle driveway out in front of my house and the nubs would come to rest in the grass. It has been only once or twice in a year or two that I have seen my cigar butt lying in the grass the next day. Most times I never see them again and I suspect they are hiding under the blades of grass just waiting for the elements to return them to the earth. On a few occasions I had smelled their scent, usually after a rain, but for the most part my nose does not detect a thing.

So, that’s what I do with my butts and ashes. But I was wondering what other FOHers do with theirs?

Tell us how you dispose of your old soldiers.

[riazp]

I put them in a ziplock back and put the ziplock in the trashcan after a smoking session.

[cigcars]

The things don't go to waste among my fellow smoker. He takes all nubs and puts them in his pipe and finishes them down to nothing. That's him. Before he advised me of giving them to him, I would just toss them in the can or out in the yard (minus the cigar bands). Also, you do know that you never grind out your finished cigar in the ashtray similar to stubbing out a cigarette...it spreads the odor around for sure. Pardon me for mentioning if this is common knowledge to you, btrout. I really don't worry about it. If all the above were not in place...I'd just throw them away in the trash, or preferably outdoors in the grass. A quick note: due to the high value of my smokes, if it turned out I'd left a sizable stub unsmoked, I would drive it out into the city when I would go out, find a nearby public ashtray and let some poor, homeless or luckless soul who has that propensity find and finish if he likes. That was yesteryear, not nowadays.

[Ginseng]

Ashes go into a bucket that are then spread in the garden. Nubs go into an old flower pot that gets bagged, tied, and thrown out a few times a season.

Wilkey

[matt14]

My maid takes care of that sort of thing!!!

[bolivr]

My ash gets scattered about the garden. I have to do an efficient job or the dog finds it and eats it He just loves everything to do with cigar smoking - he'll come running if he hears the cutter click shut.

The nubs I let cool down in the ashtray and then use a box cutter blade to cut down the length of the wrapper and binder, then loosen the filler leaves before scattering them on the garden. They just blend in with the other stuff lying there. This is possibly the world's most expensive mulch

It's also a good chance to see the leaf blend inside.

[TonyV]

In the spring and summer months i save the nubs in mason jars.When a jar become half filled with nubs,i fill the rest of jar with hot water.Let it seep for a week or so.I then transfer it to a bottle garden hose attachment, spray everything in the yard and garden. its a great repellent no mosquitoes,very few flying insect. When one jar empties -ziplock-trash.repeat.

I usually spray late at night though ,first few hours after spraying leaves quite a pungent aroma

[bc8436]

I fill empty Gatorade (or other beverages with a wide-mouth openings) bottles with some water, and toss the nubs in there.

I toss out the bottle whenever I take out the trash, which is 1-2 a week.

[cckandb24]

I smoke outside so I just let the ashtray fill up with nubs and ashes and when Im done for the night I store it on the grill under the cover. The night before the trash gets picked up, just dump it all in a trash bag and into the trash bin, then out to the street they go. no mess in the yard

[Rushman]

I am not going to be alot of help on this topic, but what the heck, I will respond anyway. I have done the majority of my cigar smoking in B&M shops over the years. Living in Texs most of my life, summers are just too darn hot to smoke in te yard, and to me smoking is best in asocial climate. So to answer the question, I knock off my ash and dispose of my nub in a trusty "stinky" brand ashtray, and some nice B&M employee comes and freshens my ashtray. In my own smoke shop in PDC Mexico, I knock the ash off into the street as I usually smoke on the stoop (stone steet, and it rains alot,so it all disappears).

[goalie204]

Every night after i smoke cigars, i flush the ashes and nubs down the toilet. It's organic matter after all

[Lotusguy]

You guys don't have the "stinky cigar" ashtray??? Since I only smoke outside, it sits outside until it fills up (couple of weeks or so) and then I dump it in my garbage can. Easy as pie.

[rckymtn22]

I let my nub go out then into the compost bin with the ashes.

[CaptainQuintero]

Ash goes into my outside log burner and all the nubs I put into a 1 gallon demijohn, when the demijohn is full I just take it to the dump and throw it into the glass section

Easily holds 150 nubs and the pic is the result of 2011 smoking. The cool thing is that there is no odour due to the cork bung and it being airtight; putting a lit cigar into it burns up most of the air inside and creats a small vacuum, so each time I open it up to pop a new nub in, I get a satisfying hiss and air rushes in (stopping any stale smoke smell escaping)before I quickly put the cork bung back in.

[cigcars]

Ash goes into my outside log burner and all the nubs I put into a 1 gallon demijohn, when the demijohn is full I just take it to the dump and throw it into the glass section

Easily holds 150 nubs and the pic is the result of 2011 smoking. The cool thing is that there is no odour due to the cork bung and it being airtight; putting a lit cigar into it burns up most of the air inside and creats a small vacuum, so each time I open it up to pop a new nub in, I get a satisfying hiss and air rushes in (stopping any stale smoke smell escaping)before I quickly put the cork bung back in.

**Is THIS what you're burying in that landfill/dump!? Man - I can see excavators in the far future digging that up and taking it to museums, etc. for their generations to "Ooo" and "Ahh" over!

[CaptainQuintero]

**Is THIS what you're burying in that landfill/dump!? Man - I can see excavators in the far future digging that up and taking it to museums, etc. for their generations to "Ooo" and "Ahh" over!

I should probably bury them around the country with notes inside explaining what tobacco is and what it used to be made into, for those people in the future who will grow up not knowing what they are..like in 20 years

Cigar time capsule!

[Habanos2000]

I usually smoke in the back yard, so the ashes go in the rocks around the house and the butts now go down the sewer hole way in the back. I used to put the butts in one of my wife's flower pots, figuring hey they're dried up leaves and will decompose, but the next spring when she was potting new flowers they were still pretty in tact and I had a hard time explaining what I was thinking when I put them there.

Now, down that sewer and no worries!

[KarlJ]

Ash goes in the yard or fire pit.

Butts go into the fire pit.

The fire pit burns weekly so nothing sits to long.

-Karl

[Trevor2118]

I let my nub go out then into the compost bin with the ashes.

Same here.....yet to have a tabacco plant spring up

[LLC]

Here we have a green bin that is picked up like recycling and then taken away for composting. That is where I empty my ash tray as needed.

[CM125]

I smoke outside so ashes go on the ground and butts goes in a field beside the house thankfull it is vacant.

Curtis

[nick17]

me and my friend have a metal bucket where we smoke that has dirt in it as well as when it rains water we fill it up and then empty it in the garden or garbage depending on if it has water in it or not

[TankerT]

When I am at home, I smoke either outside (Spring, Summer, Fall) or in the garage with the door slightly open (Winter).

Once finished, I break the remaining cigar apart, and scatter the leaves in my yard. Doesn't add to the landfill, and just becomes additional leaves breaking down in my hears.

All natural.

[cottierm]

+ 1

My ash gets scattered about the garden. I have to do an efficient job or the dog finds it and eats it He just loves everything to do with cigar smoking - he'll come running if he hears the cutter click shut.

The nubs I let cool down in the ashtray and then use a box cutter blade to cut down the length of the wrapper and binder, then loosen the filler leaves before scattering them on the garden. They just blend in with the other stuff lying there. This is possibly the world's most expensive mulch

It's also a good chance to see the leaf blend inside.

[btrout]

I've felt bad for just dumping my nubs in the yard, but it appears that I have been validated. Many of you do the same thing.

Thanks for all your responses.

Bob