# Is this littering? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 18, 2003, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351 "2003-01-18T00:50:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/21 "2003-01-19T01:20:27Z")
> [@](#): > > Yes, that’s right. Technically, you can put that stuff in, but it attracts pests and I think it may decompose differently or something. I’ve never read anything that recommends it. another composter here. Anything protien based will attract rats adn the like and stink as it is being broken down. I have 2 compost piles, 1 is a maybe 3x3x3 ft bin - mainly used for some leaves, some grass clippings and food scraps. The other is really about 1/10 of an achr area on a hill side with low level vegatation. Used only for food scraps and even though it is not a pile things decay just fine and more low lovel veg. grows. ---
**Author:** ![Virgowitch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/9fc348/32.png) [@Virgowitch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Virgowitch)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2003, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/22 "2003-01-19T01:21:35Z")
Bio-degradable anything is not littering. Tossing a cigarette butt out the window is worse than littering, it accounts for millions of dollars in fire damage every year, not to mention the toll in firefighter and civilian lives. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2003, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/23 "2003-01-19T02:00:33Z")
Thank you. I feel vindicated. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2003, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/24 "2003-01-19T03:09:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by k2dave \* > \*\*another composter here. Anything protien based will attract rats adn the like and stink as it is being broken down. > \*\* So why don’t veggie scraps and bread crusts and egg shells attract rats? Won’t they eat that stuff? (I really want to know; I’m not being a smartass) ---
**Author:** ![Dignan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2003, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/25 "2003-01-19T16:20:23Z")
Where does gum fit on this list? I’m talking highway so it’s not like it ends up on the sidewalk and the bottom of someone’s shoe? I always thought it was biodegradeable? Is gum a no-no too? ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2003, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/26 "2003-01-19T19:24:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by happyheathen \* > \*\* > > Clean up our act, pig! \*\* **Moderator’s note:** Knock it off, **happyheathen** , and clean up _your_ act. You’ve been around this block enough times to know that name-calling and personal attacks aren’t tolerated in IMHO. The focus of the discussion is the topic, not personalities. Consider yourself warned. TVeblen, IMHO mod ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2003, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/27 "2003-01-19T21:34:05Z")
I don’t think I would throw anything from a car, mainly since I don’t think it would make it to “the undergrowth”, but I have been known to throw apple-butts into the bushes under the “don’t panic - it’s organic” slogan. Anything else is a no-no though. ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/28 "2003-01-20T03:22:10Z")
If referring to a person who strews garbage as a “pig” is considered offensive, I appologize. Please substitute the word “slob”. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/29 "2003-01-20T03:23:22Z")
And yes, that is an accurate use of the word, used to make a point. ---
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/30 "2003-01-20T03:40:40Z")
I wouldn’t consider it littering if it was an apple core or a piece of bread, maybe, but I wouldn’t throw chicken bones out the window. I know dogs can choke on them and I wouldn’t be surprised if it could be potentially harmful to other animals as well (either feral, someone’s pet, or the normal wildlife.) ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/31 "2003-01-20T03:59:24Z")
I have been guilty of tossing foodstuffs out of the car. I never thought about what \*\* racer 72 \*\* said about animals being attracted to the food and then struck by cars. That’s a really good point, and I’m not going to do it any more. People around where I live seem to consider drinking and driving to be a rite of passage. Until your car has been struck by a beer bottle flung from ahead at sixty miles per hour, you don’t know what a sudden shock can do to your driving, I assure you. Even hitting an animal isn’t as likely to make you swerve off the road, because odds are, you glimpsed it before hand . . . a beer bottle is another matter. You don’t see it until you hear the crash, especially at night. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/32 "2003-01-20T04:07:05Z")
As a business owner on a busy metropolitan street, I’ll also confirm that it is indeed littering. I also am an ex-smoker that used to flick cigarette butts out the window all the time…until I had to clean up 987 million of them in front of our business. Blech. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/33 "2003-01-20T05:01:30Z")
Y’know happyheathen, everyone else’s comments in this thread have made me rethink my position- that’s whay I asked, after all, I wanted conversation about the issue to help me decide what course of action to follow. Your smug, insulting post made me want to go overturn every trashcan I could find. You might want to consider how to best present your arguments to get the desired results in the future. ---
**Author:** ![imthjckaz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/imthjckaz/32/3223_2.png) [@imthjckaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/imthjckaz)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/34 "2003-01-20T05:48:34Z")
Dave, that is littering. And Gingy, why didn’t you smack him upside the head for it? ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/35 "2003-01-20T06:39:03Z")
**dave** - It was not my intent to insult you (or offend anyone else). My attempt was to point out that the behaviour you described is, in addition to being illegal in my state, consitutes boorish behaviour. So, to recap: 1. Tossing food scraps from a moving vehicle is, indeed, littering. 2. Additionally, it is severely frowned upon by the local gendarmes. 3. In addition to being illegal (locally) littering, it is boorish. AKA **Ginger** has nailed it. Sorry for ruffling feathers in my attempt to put a point on the “don’t do that” message. HH ---
**Author:** ![The\_MacDairmuid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_MacDairmuid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_MacDairmuid)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/36 "2003-01-20T07:05:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BiblioCat \* > … What animal eats greasy chicken bones? > \*\* Racoons, opussums, coyotes, wild cats, domesticated cats, domesticated dogs, many birds, etc… 😉 All of which run the risk of being killed by vehicles when retrieving said greasy chicken bones. I throw nothing out the window of my car, save for potable liquids and boogers. So yes, I say the OP is considered littering. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/37 "2003-01-20T23:03:11Z")
If I’m allowed to post a couple of answers re. biodegradability: Orange peels - 2 years to biodegrade. [Colorado State Parks](http://parks.state.co.us/home/kids/survival.asp?page=survival) Cigarette butts - The jury seems to be out, anywhere from 1 to 15 years (or even never) From [this news atricle](http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/cns/2002-04-10/156.asp) seems to be moderately balanced. Chicken bones - no idea Throwing stuff out - any stuff except water - is littering. Bubblegum is not biodegadable at all, but google isn’t being too helpful today. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/38 "2003-01-21T03:15:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by imthjckaz \* > \*\*Dave, that is littering. > > And Gingy, why didn’t you smack him upside the head for it? \*\* He was driving. I quite enjoy living, you see. ---
**Author:** ![Kamandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5daacb/32.png) [@Kamandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamandi)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/39 "2003-01-21T06:55:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by techchick68 \* > **I figure, if I wouldn’t just dump it in my own yard and leaving it there, I probably shouldn’t be dumping it on my travels.** That’s the standard I’ve always used, too. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/40 "2003-01-22T23:22:47Z")
FWIW, my wife has agreed to change her littering ways after I showed her some of the answers posted in [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=107668) thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351.md?page=3)