How many of you toss your biodegradable trash out the car window?

[crispini]

I tossed an apple core out the window this morning and it got me to thinking..... It seems to me if the birds or bugs could eat it, it's not so bad. But I'd never toss a can or a piece of paper or something -- that's REALLY littering.

[supernova]

Yes, I throw food stuffs away

or plants or anything organic that will disintegrate.

Plastic or metal, or othe r inorganic stuff, I wait till I get home and in the recyling bin it goes.

edit: I should add that it's never anything large, always small or just too little to save til I get home

[LeftyMom]

1. No way, there's still a huge fine for littering here.

I take it home and toss it on the compost pile.

[Oeditpus Rex]

12. Compost

Because a rind is a terrible thing to waste.









:hide:




(Good on ya, LM.) :thumbsup:

[NNadir]

2. Have you ever thought that maybe you are not perfectly healthy?

Someone may be insipired to pick up your apple core, or whatever, and with those things, any viruses you may carry.

Suppose everyone carried their biodegradable trash to the edge of a roadway and dumped it?

I think composting is a good thing, but the edges of roadways are not really composting places.

That's just my opinion.

[supernova]

11. The earth isn't pristine either

There are germs on every square millimetre of the planet. And you know what, our immune systems are all healthier for the exchange.

If you throw something away in nature, it has a chance to degrade and the insects, animals, and microorganisms that work that process have a chance to gain sustanace from it.

If you take it home, put it in a bag for the landfill, I can guarantee you, it will still be in that same condition 10 years from now. That serves no purpose whatsoever.

[NNadir]

18. So you recommend biologically degradable refuse on roadways?

There are indeed germs everywhere on the planet, but not germs that are likely to be picked up and handled by someone. Obviously people try to minimize the routes through which infection can spread, some of which involves sanitary disposal.

Sewage is biodegradable, and yes it contains germs, but we do not put it on our lawns. It's excellent properties as a fertilizer do not make it acceptable to dispose of it on a case by case basis.

Shit dumped on the side of the road doesn't always just sit there and compost. It if often washed into storm drains and ultimately into water supplies. There is an environmental issue called eutrophication. One apple core will not destroy a river, but one million of them might.

Not everything in a landfill degrades, but many things, in fact do. Landfills are not especially worse at degrading things than the sides of roadways. I have been to landfills. I can tell you that insects live there as well as everywhere else. Things do indeed rot, which accounts by the way, for the odor. Anyone who has driven through Staten Island knows this.

I have no problem with composting. I have a compost pile myself. The issue is the claim that garbage should be left on the side of roadways. The solution for waste processing is not for individual to make guerrilla compost piles whenever they see fit. I just have a problem with compost piles being wherever anyone chooses to make one - and let's face it - it's just laziness that's involved here.

I am not thrilled when people throwaway food on my block and I have to clean it off my property. Just because a discarded peanut butter and jelly sandwich is biodegradable doesn't mean it is appropriate to dump it in public.

[supernova]

24. No, I did not say I recommend it

I said I do it occasionally and if done discreetly causes no harm. I am not advocating anything of a sort, but I am being honest.

Make of it what you will.

[Moochy]

25. Yeah I'm surpised at alll the DU litterbugs!

a $500 fine for the lot of you! The only thing I'd be ok with dumping is maybe some ice from cup. Whats the matter with keeping it in yer car til you get to your destination?

I'm going to leave the democrat party over this!! :evilgrin: :sarcasm:

[aclog]

3. Where's the option for

I piss out the window, any trash is that blows out is just incidental

[crispini]

4. Bwahahahahah!

[In_The_Wind]

5. I toss anything eatable. Everything else is disposed of properly.

I make sure the food lands off the roadway. I'm always feeding the wildlife something.

[TimeChaser]

6. Not out of a car window.

But I will sometimes set down biodegrable stuff when I'm outside.

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. All food item trash should be given back to nature

Giving it to the landfill is an ethical breach of enormous proportions.

HOWEVER - there are some places this is not true - such as the arctic, or any place that is always ice covered where the food won't decompose; and in our national parks, especially the truly wild ones like Denali, because we don't want animals to get used to the smell of humans and their food.

[supernova]

9. Good point about winter

or wintry places. In fact, I don't do this in winter. It's usually a spring or summer habit.

[grannylib]

8. As long as I can get it into a ditch and not on the roadway, yeah, apple

cores, sunflower seed shells, that kind of thing I will toss.
My backseat is a vertiable trash heap of paper, pop bottles, altoid tins, etc....in fact, that got me OUT of a littering fine once! A guy in a pickup ahead of me on the road had a pop bottle bounce/blow out of the bed of his truck, PAST my car and right onto the highway in front of the state trooper who was right behind me. Trooper pulls ME over and asked if I had tossed that bottle.
"Officer," I said, "Check out my back seat. Does this look like the vehicle of someone who throws trash out the window?" Said back seat was SWIMMING in debris...he looked, laughed, said "I see what you mean!" and off I went. I did tell him where the bottle had come from, and he was gonna try to catch the driver of the pickup, but I bet he was long gone by then.

[SOteric]

10. I would never throw anything out of a car window. It's dangerous.

It's like dropping things off of bridges into traffic.

I'm all for composting and giving back to nature, but not at 65 mph on the Freeway.

[supernova]

13. If I do it

which isn't very often, btw, I'm stopped at a little country cross roads. I'm not whizzing down the freeway.

[CanuckAmok]

14. That depends. Is radium biodegradable?

If not, then no.

[AngryAmish]

15. That is disgusting

You should be ashamed of yourself.

[Cobalt Violet]

16. I don't like to attract animals to the side of the road.

I use to though it out the windows of cars. But I don't want animals near the road. I have a place where I park my car that would be much safer place to throw stuff.

[OrwellwasRight]

17. I was hiking once and my friend told me that

it takes like five years for a banana peel to decompose and that we should not leave any biodegradeable items on the mountain no matter how natural we think they are. Not sure of the banana peel thing is true, but it got my attention.

[Kali]

26. tell that to the two horses of some friends of mine

that eat banana peels. (then again their names are Pestilence and Famine)


We have a two mile dirt road into our place - we chuck banana peels out all the time - they certainly get hauled off by SOMETHING.

I throw organics out the window all the time - do try to get it way off the road though.

At home all organics goes to the "chicken" pile. (which gets shared by the dogs, gophers and skunks)

[OrwellwasRight]

28. Well, sure, if it gets eaten, then it is all for the best. :-)

But just throwing it out a car window might not ensure that.

Too bad my cat is not the living trash can/compost heap/garbage disposal that many dogs (and other pets are) are. She often won't even eat stuff that isn't trash.

[JVS]

19. Pickles I consider fair game, beverages too.

[Moochy]

20. Leave Laura Bush out of this! n/t

[JVS]

21. Mmmmm pickles.

[Moochy]

22. She's bio-degrading!

What with the First Lady's joker-like perma-grin, I'm thinking Pickles is no longer bio-degradeable. What was that vat of stuff that the Joker fell into again? :evilgrin:

[JVS]

23. Hey, I might toss out my pickles, but I always eat my Pickles...

if ya know what I mean ;-)

[qnr]

27. No way. Gotta save the tummies of those poor critters. I like hot sauce

so much I'd probably drink a tabasco milkshake on a dare.

[Shine]

29. Yup, me too. Apple cores are about the extent of what I'll toss.

:hi: crispini!!