What do you do with your chewing gum when you're done chewing it?
Asked by
McBean (
1703
)
September 5th, 2008
I set a leather satchel down without looking the other day and ended up with a piece of gooey fluorescent green gum stuck to the bottom! Why??? Who throws their gum on the ground? And who sticks it under their chair? Can’t people learn to find a small piece of paper to wrap it in before tossing it in a trash can?
Do gum tossers throw their gum on the ground in hopes that it attaches to someone else’s shoe? Do decent people of normal intelligence do this? I just don’t get it. You may not have the answer, but haven’t you ever wondered?
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31 Answers
Paper and a trash can, mostly. On very rare occasions, I’ll swallow it, if no other way to discreetly get rid of it, is available.
September 5, 2008, 11:05 AM EDT
I throw it away. In the trash. Sometimes without wrapping it up in foil or paper first and I always feel guilty about that. Generally wrapped in foil or paper.
(My apologies for this…)
Oh, what shall I do with my gum?
Should I stick it on top of my thumb?
Should I toss it away,
As I go out to play,
Heading off to my gymnasium?
September 5, 2008, 11:14 AM EDT
I usually spit it out the window as I travel down the highway (how lady like!). If I am by myself I will almost always try to spit it through the passenger window. I drive a lot and get bored. Spitting gum is one way to relieve the boredom. Also, it isn’t littering. If everyone spit their gum onto the highway, road repairs would become unnecessary. Just think of all the gum filling those damn potholes.
@JA:
My gum is not thrown away!
Whenever I go out to play,
I swallow’t whole,
where’t collects in a bowel,
now save’d for a rainy day!
—-eww!—-
@JA: You just couldn’t resist, huh? :-)
@sndfreQ: Working off of Sueanne’s theory, all that swallowed gum should fill the holes made by your gastric ulcer! (j/k. I hope you don’t have a gastric ulcer)
A piece of paper, or tissue, then I throw it away. If no paper is around, then I might swallow it.
I deposit it in the nearest spittoon. Or, if I’m not trapped in a game of Mad Dog McCree, a trash can. If I have to wait, so be it.
@gail: Hmmm…this is interesting. Thanks. That thread didn’t come up with my search.
I see that there are many responsible chewers here, and I thank you!
Play this, then smile!
September 5, 2008, 11:16 AM EDT
I’ve worked in food service for many years an every time I see gum stuck on the bottom of a table, I want to be like Seinfeld and scream, “Who DOES that???” It’s just so rude, both to those who have to scrape off that nasty gum that has your bodily fluids in it and also to those patrons who may unknowingly raise their knees and get it stuck on their pants.
As a note to people spitting out gum.. Discarded gum poses a danger to pets and wildlife, getting tangled in fur and feathers and causing suffocation when swallowed.
I always pocket the wrapper, put the gum in it when I’m through, then pocket that until I’m near a trash can.
Come to think of it, I don’t chew it that often. Most of the time if I’m chewing, I’ll spit it out the car window while I’m driving, because for some reason, that’s the very time I’ll decide to get bored with chewing it. As far as animals are concerned, um, I think standing in the middle of the road to eat my gum is way more dangerous than the gum itself ;)
@sueanne: I TOTALLY used to do that, and that was my exact reasoning. Since I asked the above referenced question, I stick it in the ashtray. I have to admit I’ve been tempted though.
However, I never threw it where someone would be walking.
@JackAdams: I love that song. Can you believe I know every word?
@McBean: Yes, I can believe you know the words to that song.
May I suggest you create a new question that reads, “What are Fog Horns made from?”
Just PLEASE don’t ask, “Where does BABY OIL come from?”
I really don’t want to know…
September 5, 2008, 1:28 PM EDT
When I can, I give it back to the person who was chewing it before me.
You’re a thoughtful and responsible ape, Mr_M.
Hey! It’s our planet – we have to take care of it!
I just threw up on my new carpeting…
September 5, 2008, 4:01 PM EDT
I usually wrap my gum in a scrap of paper or the original wrapping if I still have it, and put it in a trashcan, or hold onto it until I find one.
I used to never understand why a piece of gum would land on the pavement. Then yesterday happened. I was leisurely riding my bike down the road while I chewed some extra polar ice gum (my favorite) when I was hit by a car (an SUV to be exact). I saw it coming at me, screamed, and on impact the gum flew out of my open mouth and onto the ground.
Once I had gathered myself up enough to get my bike out of the road and get the damn driver’s insurance information, I saw my gum, and while I felt bad for whatever it might get stuck to, I was just in no mood to pick it up, so I didn’t.
Now I have a feeling a very small percentage of the gum on the pavement got there the same way mine did, but now I know where that once piece came from at least.
@LaChica: Oh,no! Can’t blame you about leaving that piece where it lay.
@buster: urhg
@buster: That is heinous.
I’ll put mine in tissue and throw it in the garbage and if a trash can is not close by, I will swallow it!
how about using a wrapper specifically design for it? Nice and colorful? Check out gumpark.com. Kids love it, its very simple and easy to carry around. I have seen it in one restaurant, really caught my attention. Would be great if it more available.
Last time, on a longhaul flight I took off my shoes and stepped onto a gum… really disgusting.. was thinking of having that wrapper with me.
One thing you can do with your used chewing gum, is to stuff it in the coin slot of a payphone that once ripped you off, or in the coin slot of a Coke® machine that took your money, but gave you no soda can, or a WARM soda can…
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