Someone told me that, in the United States, the only things you may legally throw from your car, without being guilty of littering, are “feathers and water”. Anything else - even organic and biodegradable - is technically litter.
I’m having trouble believing this. Sounds a bit UL-ish to me, like those “strange laws” emails.
I would guess that even if there were such a law, it would be by state rather than federal.
I couldn’t find anything in Ceci’s columns or Google about this.
In a past life, I drove school buses. One of the requirements was to obtain a commercial driver’s license.
One of the questions we had to know was the two things that could be legally spilled from a vehicle without a littering charge. Those two things were, you guessed it, bird feathers and clean water.
So your friend was right, at least in the People’s Republic of Kalifornia.
PDF File Warning! Scroll down to page 57.
Knew I could find a cite for ya.
Trucks transporting poultry tend to leave a trail of feathers (I’ve been in cars riding behind poultry trucks, so I know), and state littering laws may well make an exception for chicken-truckers. That could be the origin of the story. How water came into it I don’t know, unless states also made an exception for water, snow, ice etc. dripping off the exterior of cars in inclement weather. (Personally I think people who drive after snowstorms with chunks of snow flying off their cars because they’re too lazy to brush them off ought to be arrested for something.)
I’m amazed! This sounded so much like a “ducks quack doesn’t echo” type story. She will never let me forget this 
I did search the DMV site but under things like “litter”, which didn’t return any useful results. I’m curious why exceptions are only made for feathers, though: lots of things can spill from trucks: hay, sand, horse hair, … Perhaps the poultry industry has a big lobby in Sacramento 
I will second the fact that it seems both strange but logical at the same time. Open air truck trailers carrying live chickens do blow live feathers out the back. Maybe some driver got a ticket for it once and raised enough stink to get it put into law. Water can come from all kinds of sources and applies to lots of stuff. Almost all road rules are state dependent so I seriously doubt that the other 49 states have a law like this. I also doubt that someone is going to get ticketed for it.
So the feathers can only come from live birds?
Yes.
Reasoning: Live birds have to have air holes/slots so they can breathe.
Dead birds can be sealed within a closed container.
Yup. That’s the rationale.
I found out about this myself when I had to tote a load of branches to a city dump. It’s impossible to keep live poultry fully enclosed; and clear water will evaporate.
Clear water. Hey, I’m sure if I dumped anything from sewer water to lemonade (in sufficient quantity) on a highway I could be sure I’d catch hell for it.
And I think the law makes a distinctioin between liquid water and ice, snow, hail or sleet, in case you might transport those things in the Golden State; if a truck ahead of me dumped a 200-pound block of ice on the highway and I crashed into it, I’d say I have standing to sue the driver and/or press charges.
This fact is probably the only one I retained from my three stints in traffic school.
Well, there go my weekend plans.
To be honest, it isn’t really water they are allowing so much as melted ice. Early “refrigerated” trucks and Ice trucks would have ice melt and the water drip out onto the road.
However, garbages trucks often leave a trail of refuse down the Highway and are very rarely cited.
When I used to haul garbage, I did this sometimes. Although, only once did it exceed the odd single item flying out. Once, for some reason (this ONLY happened once) I had about 4 full black garbage bags fly out while driving down a grade. As soon as another driver pointed it out, I looked in my side mirror to see for myself. I saw a large bag sitting in the middle of a lane.
A Cadillac was in the same lane, approaching the bag.
I figured, theres no way he cannot see the bag, he will surely change lanes to avoid hitting it.
The car drew closer, and after several seconds of suspense, I saw the bag disappear under the car.
This was immediately followed by erratic swerving on the part of the car’s driver and a massive cloud of garbage becoming airborne from underneath the rear of the car. The Cadillac drove on, undamaged.
I sighed, knowing how my afternoon would be spent.
No one seems to mind the vegetable trucks being uncovered. Literally. The trucks aren’t covered, law enforcement wouldn’t bother, and while some people might observe the squashed tomatoes on the road, I’ve never heard anyone upset.
Is it just a matter of too trivial to bother, or has anyone tried to change things?
I don’t know about other states, but open topped trucks in Indiana must be covered when loaded, to keep the grain, gravel, trash, etc. from flying out.
Were you perhaps thinking of driving down the highway, dumping pillowfulls of feathers behind you?
I know I was.
(And I’m pretty sure that would fall under more serious statutes than littering.)
Perhaps because that state’s DMV doesn’t refer to it as “litter.” Searching Google under litter definition I found this, http://www.ncedr.org/guides/litter/step41.htm , which gives a good overview of the subject.