# 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:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/41 "2003-01-22T23:53:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Weirddave \* > \*\*I drive a lot, and I am constantly appauled by the amount of garbage that lines our nation’s highways. I cringe when I see people throw bags of trash out their window right into the road ( which I see maybe…5-6 times a year ) and want to run those assholes off the road. I wouldn’t dream of throwing trash out the window- not napkins or bags or cans or straws or anything else. > > The question is this: The other day I was eating a chicken leg while driving, and when I was finished, I tossed the bone out the window. My wife looked at me and asked “Why are you littering?” I was stumped. The thing is, I don’t think that I was. I will throw old foodstuffs out the window time to time. Chicken bones, that last little bit of bun left after the hamburger’s gone, the peel of an orange…out the window they go. I figure that these items are part of nature’s food chain and will be snapped up quickly by seagulls and other scavengers. ( I see this happening all the time ) My question then is this: IYHO, am I littering when I throw a chicken bone out the window, knowing full well that it will be scavenged by another creature within a day? ( please note also that I wouldn’t do this in a parking lot or a residential neighborhood, I’m talking about places where the road runs through woods. ) \*\* Ummmmmmmmmmmm, I HOPE so, because I do the same thing!!! Or, save up the chicken bones and dump them in known seagull hangouts later on that same day. I don’t think food is littering. Even if it’s missed by a critter, it biodegrades. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/42 "2003-01-23T00:01:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CanvasShoes \* > \*\*Ummmmmmmmmmmm, I HOPE so, because I do the same thing!!! Or, save up the chicken bones and dump them in known seagull hangouts later on that same day. > > I don’t think food is littering. Even if it’s missed by a critter, it biodegrades. \*\* ACK! Meant to add that I agreed with the OPs qualification that it be a WOODED road not a highway. But now, after reading, I’m not so sure. Should I not be taking my chcken bones or apple cores to the “Seagull Cafe” or dropping them on the not well-traveled side roads? I guess not. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/43 "2003-01-23T01:21:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CanvasShoes \* > \*\*But now, after reading, I’m not so sure. Should I not be taking my chcken bones or apple cores to the “Seagull Cafe” or dropping them on the not well-traveled side roads? > > I guess not. \*\* I think there’s a difference between apple cores and chicken bones. I don’t see anything at all wrong with throwing an apple core out the window (provided it’s a semi-rural-ish area, and there are no other cars around), but chicken bones? No way. Find a trash can for the KFC leftovers. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/44 "2004-05-25T12:33:29Z")
There is a wooded lot behind our house into which I will toss any food that has gone off: eggs, oranges, grapes, cooked shrimp, you name it. This lot goes back for about a mile. I consider it my personal compost heap. Anything wrong with that? ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/45 "2004-05-25T13:42:19Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > I don’t have a cite, but if the orange peel was bio-degraded, you wouldn’t see it any more. Right? Bio-degraded means it’d be _gone._ > I think what you’re seeing is just old, dried-up orange peels. > > (or, as Martha Stewart would put it, Organic Potpourri!) > > I don’t see anything wrong with pitching a bit of hamburger and bun or an apple core, because I know those will be eaten be various scavengers, but I don’t know about chicken bones. What animal eats greasy chicken bones? > Find a trash can. Sorry, but I must chime in on the orange peel thing. They are totally biodegradeable. The dried up orange peels are _in the process_ of breaking down. They don’t take all that long, and they will completely biodegrade. Completely. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/46 "2004-05-25T15:43:58Z")
Whether or not an item is biodegradable isn’t the point (IMHO). Toliet tissue is biodegradable…but we’d all agree that toliet tissue discarded on the side of the road–particularly if it’s used–would be an eyesore. Banana peels take forever to biodegrade. I believe many state parks forbid people from tossing out their peels because they’re safety hazards on hiking trails. Imagine breaking your neck on a banana peel that’s five years old! I would never toss foodstuff into a visible area, like a street or sidewalk. But if I was in the woods or next to a pond somewhere, I wouldn’t hesitate throwing food out. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/47 "2004-05-25T15:51:26Z")
**Tapiaco’s** cite says 2 years for orange peel decomposition, while [this one](http://www.dawnawright.com/trash.html) says 6 months. Either way, it’s not like an orange peel will automatically disappear if you toss it out of your car window. ---
**Author:** ![Lobelia\_Overhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@Lobelia\_Overhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobelia_Overhill)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/48 "2004-05-25T16:06:30Z")
if you chucked it out of your car window and it didn’t land in a dustbin, then yes, you are littering. Cooked chicken bones are dangerous things for any animal to eat … ---
**Author:** ![Venoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c4cdca/32.png) [@Venoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Venoma)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351/49 "2004-05-25T17:18:05Z")
Oo… night of the undead thread. We also had/have a very large 80 acre backyard - into which we toss our biodegradable foodstuffs, with the exception of meat scraps or breads. Those bits attract the local coyotes and foxes. No need to have predators so close to the house. For that particular reason, I would avoid throwing those sorts of things out of my car, but many other good reasons listed in this thread will have me thinking twice about anything (the only one I’m really guilty of is banana peels - they stink up a hot car fast. Orange peels make it smell purty 😃 ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-littering/149351.md?page=2)