Is throwing an apple core out of the window of your car littering?

Someone once told me the only things that are okay to throw out of your car are water and chicken feathers. Huh?

Apple cores biodegrade very rapidly. As long as you don’t hit the car behind you, you are fine.

@tinyfaery – was that the day you visited the mental hospital?

I think it’s gross, and definitely littering. Think about a highway full of people’s nasty refuse – if the first step is apple cores, how long until people are throwing half eaten buckets of greasy chicken and candy bar wrappers out the window? Those things won’t biodegrade, and (hopefully) birds won’t “pick it up and stuff.”

What do you mean visited? hee hee hee! Yay! I finally used the cool empases.

@ezraglenn, well I mean more biodegradable stuff. Coz it’s obvious dropping stuff thats going to damage the environment is a bad thing :)

I think it is littering. And it is also distracting to the person driving behind you when random shit starts flying out your window.

Just keep it in the car until you have to pee. Throw it away then.

or… pee out the window too!!!! perfect. Thanks for the tip John :)

John: “oh bu… wai… oh dear…”

He might condone your release of fluids out the window.

If you ever had a motorcyclist blast by you while flipping you off, there is a good chance it was me, properly thanking you for sharing your lunch with me.

You’d need to ask to change your user name to Johnny Appleseed or at least Cagey Appleseed.

Sriously speaking, anything thrown from a car is, essentially, a missile. Why do it?

Hmmm, I could take either side here. It could be bad in the sense that it really is garbage and could hurt someone, but its biodegradeable and does so quickly. Plus I’ve thrown worse out my window. I’m gonna go ahead and say its no good since whatthefluther made me think of how I would have felt seeing or feeling an apple core coming at me when I used to have a motorcycle.

I think if you threw it out onto the side of the road when your car was stopped, it would be fine. It is going to biodegrade faster there than it would if you threw it away in a plastic-lined trashcan.

@ tiny: In California, pure water and feathers from a live bird are the only two things allowed to fall from a moving vehicle.

I’m from CA, so I guess that’s why I know that. Is it really true?

The feather exception is there to accommodate the transport of live birds. If you’ve ever seen a truck loaded with cages of live chickens you would understand the need for the exception.

Your trash is not special just because it’s biodegradable. The side of everyone’s highway is not your personal landfill. There’s a more appropriate place for your trash.

@breedmitch: word.

definitely not, and i always do it. like, when i’m on the way to school and finish an apple, because it’d be sort of weird to just walk into school with an apple core and then find a trash can. i dunno that’s just me. but i think it’s perfectly fine.. it comes from the earth anyway. not like i’m throwing something weird out out my window.

yes it’s littering. Many things break down- where do you draw the line? Bananas? Someone could slip and fall. If you throw it into someone’s lawn it will attract vermin- is that a good thing? If you toss it into a road it will mush up creating a piece of yuck. All you littererers need to check how long it will take for the apple to go away. If it is longer than “instantaneously” it is litter.

It depends on where the apple core is going to fall.
If you’re on a huge freeway, yes, it’s a missile, and it’s litter, in fact slippery litter, dangerous.
If you’re driving in the country in the slow lane and there are no cars behind you and you throw it out the passenger-side window into the underbrush, don’t be silly, it’s just an apple core in the underbrush where the ants will enjoy it. And I think generalspecific makes a good point when s/he distinguishes biodegradables from stuff that must go to the landfill because they won’t degrade anyway. Apple cores belong in the compost.

I’d just like to point out I’d never throw one out whilst in the middle of the road, I would have to make sure it falls into a field or something, and coz I live in the country, that’s the usual circumstances, and the only place I might just drop an apple core in possibly in a park near a wall or something so it’s not in anyones way.
But yeah, I mean it’s common sense not to throw it out whilst going down the motorway!

According to this site apple cores take 2 months to decompose. how about putting it into your compost pile instead of making someone else do it for you? Or, if you make the choice not to compost, at least throw your own stuff away…even if you find it a hassle. You decided to et the apple…you are responsible for getting rid of your waste.

There is no away in throw away.

The question is, what kind of apple is it?

For me, not really. I think this because any food (that you swallow. not something like gum.) will be eaten by an animal or will disentegrate. Remember, it is food so will just feed a bird or go back to the ground (where it started because of the tree’s seed, which needs to be underground to grow.)

Organic or biodegradable litter is the worst litter of all. It creates a false and deadly roadside ecology attracting mice, birds, squirrels and insects to the side of the road. These in turn attract predators: foxes, owls, hawks, dogs, cats, minks. Sooner or later all this dashing out into traffic results in one of these little buggers getting creamed by a car. Next, along comes a raven or some other scavenger to eat the killed animal. The apple core has now snowballed into a very dangerous game of dodge the speeding car. It reaches it’s its critical point as the next ignorant apple eating motorist swerves to miss one of the hundreds of not-so-wise, but well fed animals living off apple cores. The motorist hits a tree and dies. It is all your fault for starting it with an apple core.

So the rule is: if it didn’t come from there it doesn’t belong there. Just like you. It’s that simple.

Wow. Nice answer. Makes the apple core thing sound scary.