Is this littering
 

Driving down a country road today, finished an apple, chunked it into the grass. With our anal police around here, I got to thinking<" If one those Barneys observed this, he would write me a ticket". My best defense was that I toss apple cores, tomatoe left overs, pretty much any organic stuff in my flower beds. What does the community think?

Let's take it to an extreme, how about if everyone of the 100,000 vehicles that pass a given point on a freeway in LA every day had a person from each car chuck an apple core, every single day?

It could be, depending on how your local law defines litter. In Missouri a cop could claim the core is garbage and ticket you.

" 577.070. 1. A person commits the crime of littering if he throws or places, or causes to be thrown or placed, any glass, glass bottles, wire, nails, tacks, hedge, cans, garbage, trash, refuse, or rubbish of any kind, nature or description on the right-of-way of any public road or state highway or on or in any of the waters in this state or on the banks of any stream, or on any land or water owned, operated or leased by the state, any board, department, agency or commission thereof or on any land or water owned, operated or leased by the federal government or on any private real property owned by another without his consent.

2. Littering is a class A misdemeanor. "

I'm not sure about Tenn. but here in Cali the only two things you are allowed to discard along state highways is water and chicken feathers. Everything else is "littering".

Well, now that you ask . . .

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/500407-do-you-think-pitching-apple-core-banana-peel-out-car-window-littering.html

(proof that PPOT has almost come full circle, there's nothing new to discuss anymore).

You'd have an apple orchard?

from that other thread:

someone mentioned..what if it was going into your yard? i voted yes. if i was in the boonies..no.

Point taken.

Not meant to hijack but what about peanut shells. Can you throw them out?

I can promise you that in TX even biodegradable organic materials are considered litter. I know because I've looked it up.

yes its litter, organic or not its an eye sore

Throwing edible objects out into the grass= NOT littering in my opinion.

Then wild life would abound.

Throwing out an apple core is just like feeding the critters to me. Only i don't get to see them enjoy their free meal.

I voted yes it's litter but I do it sometimes, someone has to feed the rodent population,

Johny Appleseed.

Ya had to do it. Now I have to come up with some far-fetched thread that has never, ever, ever been discussed here.

I suppose on a moral standard organic material is OK to toss. That's not how the law reads, so how do you want to behave?

OTOH, why do people think it's OK to toss a cigarette butt anywhere? I get them in my front yard all the time.

I voted yes, but I have done it.

The key is "country road" city road maybe not a good idea. I have had to stop and even pinch one in the weeds before.

For the poll do you want our opinion or what the law says.

Something like an apple core or banana peel thrown out in the country is fine to me. Throwing stuff out in town is probably not good. Throwing out a pizza, not really as much as an apple (apples naturally fall off of a tree and rot, pizzas don't). As a kid, I used to feed the ducks at the park old bread.

Pouring your latte from Starbucks out next to your car in the parking lot is nasty.

Yea, I guess it's littering. Laying on a sidewalk it would be an eyesore and messy.

But chucking an apple core out your window into the ditch as you drive down a country road is the kind of littering I can live with. And within a week or two there will be no trace of it anymore, unlike Big Gulp cups and McD's wrappers.

So I vote that in an urban setting find a garbage can, but rurally just try not to hit that young equestrian taking her horse out for a trot! :D