I have been saving the plastic packaging of my cigarette filters for several years. I couldn’t face throwing these plastic tubes away in their droves. It seemed like such blatant waste – although I am sure I have littered many cigarette butts in this time. This dichotomy feels quite relevant to our current times, in both these small ways and much bigger ones. We may be aware of our issues, but it is often too easy to slap a Band-Aid on the bullet hole rather than facing the issue head on. This piece exposes a futile attempt to reconcile the opposing impulses towards destruction and protection. I could have stopped this waste simply by quitting smoking, in fact I should quit for all the many well known reasons, but I probably won’t.