Cigarette butts raining from the sky... why?

I know we have all our flaws and in general I am very tolerant of others behaviours, but some things just go to far.

In my mind, smoking is a disgusting habit for a housemate to have. But, as long as they keep it outside it's something I can live with. Or so I thought... What never crossed my mind was that they would prefer to use the lower level balcony as their ideal location to get a nicotine fix. This presents a few problems:

• Firstly, my room sits above this lower balcony and the smoke from their session rises directly up to my balcony. Which is disgusting when I'm trying to enjoy a lovely summer evening dinner outside. The upward draft also causes the ashes to float upwards as sooty snowflakes that land in our food, clothes, and hair. I hate this, but I tolerate it in the name of living conflict free.

• Secondly, and this one is a two-fold problem. My house mates are also night owls and if I have the door open while I sleep, the smoke blows directly into my room. Creating a noxious and nauseating aroma that fills my room, and nostrils, as I try in vain to drift off to sleep. To make matters worse, they love to have loud conversations directly below my room late into the night, even on work nights. Again, I tolerate this.

• The third and final disgusting thing associated with their smoking, is that they do not like to empty their ashtray..... ever. The only time it gets emptied is once every 2 weeks when the cleaner comes. After a few days of rain it turns into a sloppy mixutre and looks even more disgusting.

View from above, through the spaces in my balcony floor:



...and here's a side view for depth:

I guess my point is: If they want to be gross that's their business but they should at least respect the other who share the house.

...But even worse, they don't always use the lower balcony, sometimes, they use the top balcony -"But why would that be worse? Surely the smoke doesn't drift downwards or ashes land in your food", you might say. And you'd be right. But.... and there is always a but, a cigarette butt. They also have an ashtray on the top level that is in the same state as the one in the picture above. The cigarette butts that overflow and spill out onto the table also spill out and through the balcony floor (my roof). If you've never had cigarette butts rain down on you and land in your food before, let me tell you it is quite disgusting!

That's all for my rant on my housemates for now. Am I wrong to tolerate it and live in silence, or should I protest? If you have a housemate horror story, please share in the comments below.