Is it throwing any garbage on the ground? What about food? Like I think throwing a Big Mac on the ground might be pushing it but what about a banana peel? If I threw one out of my window driving could I get a ticket for littering? it is food. Biodegradable, that thing won’t be on the ground more then a couple days. Where is the line drawn?
The line is drawn pretty much wherever the officer issuing the citation wants to draw it.
A few years ago I had the misfortune to be pulled over and charged with DUI (and the even greater misfortune to be guilty). I was smoking a cigarette when I stepped out of the car, dropped it, stepped on it to put it out in order to do the touch-your-nose-heel-and-toe thingy. Lit another one while standing there taking his a**-chewing, dropped it when he went to put the cuffs on (heck, if I’d leaned into the car to put it in the ashtray, he’d have probably shot me). Two little cigarette butts about an inch long. Non-filtered, quickly and fully biodegradeable. Got to court, found out the callous swine had added insult to injury by hitting me with two counts of littering…one for each butt.
The judge dropped the littering charges (big of him), but it still rankles. Write a law with the best of intentions, and the bloody cops will still find a way to abuse it.
The first I could see, but you actually lit a cigarette when the officer was talking to you? That seems…not very wise.
Granted. Unwise, ill-advised, effing stupid. But then alcohol has been known to make people do unwise things…
First off smokers and the cigs are the worst kind of littering in my opinion, I rather see big mac wrappers all over the place then cig butts.
Big Macs come in Styrofoam boxes, don’t they?
The ones I’ve seen seemed more cardboard-like.
Ah, right. Styrofoam was so last decade.
Dropping a banana peel on the sidewalk is only okay when an evil clown is chasing you.
Dropping cigarette butts on the ground is not okay. Cite
To many years of playing mario cart make me serve around all banana peels
Wow, Snowboarder Bo has issues.
If you would put it in a garbage can inside your house*, it’s litter.
The worst I do is the occasional piece of gum in a parking lot**, and an apple core thrown into the woods*** from the road. If it’s a sidewalk or a road, you really shouldn’t throw anything on it.
*YMMV, not applicable if you would actually leave a banana peel on your floor to decompose.
**Yeah, I probably shouldn’t do that.
*** real woods, not somebody’s front yard or hedge line
Of course it is subjective, but I consider it littering when the object you are discarding makes the environment look less aesthetically attractive. A banana peel or apple core on the sidewalk or in somebody’s front yard is litter. A banana peel or apple core in the middle of a forest or in a field on a farm is not, IMO.
I sort of agree with this, but it’s not only because of aesthetics for me. It’s about cumulative waste. Imagine if EVERYONE in a town or city threw their fruit and veggie waste on the ground? It certainly doesn’t take ‘a couple of days’ for it to decompose, it take weeks, or even longer if it’s not in a warm, oxygen-rich environment (which is what helps decomposition). Ugh, the smell would be horrid enough, but it would look disgusting and be a health risk. I can just see it - corners of buildings and gutters full of rotting waste, rats and mice scavenging, smelling like a dump. Bad idea.
We could call it the Middle Ages.
This is one thing I can’t stand. Have you ever stepped on a discarded piece of gum on hot asphalt? It gets on your shoe and is very very difficult to get off leading you to track a potential sticky mess everywhere.
So I can get cited for spitting sunflower seeds out of the window of my car? What about throwing grass out the window I just picked on the side of the road? Hell they have some plastic bottles now that degrade faster then paper.
If I remember correctly from traffic school here in California, the only things you can discard from your vehicle are plain water and the feathers of domestic fowl.
Story 1: Wife threw cig out of car, pegged motorcycle cop in the face, got a ticket.
Story 2: Waiting for a drawbridge, guy opens his car door and dislodges McDonalds bag full of trash on the bridge. The ENTIRE football team got out of the bus and made him pick it up. Littering around water is very uncool in a coastal town. The only thrashing he received was verbal, but it was quite thorough.
Story 3: “Officer, these paper towels are soaked with gasoline. You just helped me out because I ran out of gas and I don’t want to make you mad, but I don’t want to put them in the car. They are a fire hazard. Can I throw them on the side of the road?”
“I did not see anything. Have a good night.”
As he walked away you should have said…“Thats right you didn’t muahaha”
Headline the next day. Arson sets fires many farm houses already gone.