am i littering?

hi all,

got myself into an argument with a tosser yesterday and it pi$$ed me off so much. anyway, i was having a picnic on a river bank of a regional town with the family, and i got up, and put our apple peels and banana skins in the bushes and kicked leaves and dirt over them.

some idiot had a go at me and said i was littering. i said no and followed on that i was composting. he said it was a public park and that i had to put my rubbish in the bins. i said i would put my paper/plastic in the bins but put the organic waste in the ground. he continued that i was littering and making a mess and went on and started to swear etc. All of this in front of my kid.

at home, we have a small compost bin in the kitchen which we put the same material in and then we bury that in the garden. i have taught my young son to do the same and he does it. now this idiot yesterday was yelling and swearing at me for doing it in a public place.

in the end, i relented and picked it up and put it in the bin. just to quieten this guy down but in the same process, i felt that i had to back down (in front of my son) and that annoyed me as i still think i was in the right

so am i littering?



thanks


g
 
I don't think you were littering, and I definitely wouldn't have had a go at you about it (what is up with some people that they view life as combat? :confused:)... but I used to do the same thing until a friend of mine pointed out that the seeds in the apples could - duh - grow into an apple tree, and that that's how a lot of introduced species end up as environmental weeds. So it's best not to bury things with seeds in them in an area outside your control. Obviously in your own compost, you can pick out any seedlings that you don't want growing.
 
It is actually littering - you can be fined for that.

Whilst the guys behaviour was unreasonable and uncalled for (he should have just picked it up if he felt that passionately about it) he was actually right. If everyone just left their 'compostable' waste behind then our parks would be very dirty and smelly places.
 
I don't think you were littering and would have done the same, or brought the stuff home and dug it into our own garden. Best thing you can do is use this as a lesson to your child about how sometimes you have to do something you don't agree with in order to placate someone who has a big problem.

Teach your child that standing up for what is right is not always able to be done when faced with an unreasonable or overly emotional or aggressive person....... but that backing down doesn't make him weak. Sometimes it just makes him "smart enough" to avoid unnecessary conflict.

I get so annoyed at places like (some - most?) schools there is no recycling and recyclable stuff is thrown in the bins that will end up as landfill. Places like Dreamworld where thousands of drink bottles and cans that could be put in recycling bins are also just put in general refuse bins.

We cannot change the world, but each of us can do what we can to lessen the impact of people who don't seem to care on our fragile environment.
 
Yeah, it's littering. I didn't think so, even a friend used to say 'don't panic, it's organic!'

The problem is the local wildlife eat it and it's not a natural part of their diet. It's a big problem in wildlife sanctuaries where the numbats and other native animals won't eat the food prepared for them as they have sugar cravings for the sweet left over fruit scraps.

It can also attract mice, rats and pigeons.
 
it was in the bushes, and you covered it up....

how is that any different to bird sh*t?

it's not like you left it in the sandpit to decompose...

some people need to get their reality shots again. i'm finding the injections seem to be wearing off on the genral public lately.
 
But it isnt exactly composting though, is it. But I have done it too if there was no bin nearby and I couldnt take it back with me - but always thought it could be seen as littering.
 
I remember several years ago in QLD (or it could have been NSW where I used to live) there were these big signs on the side of the road (put up by the State Govt) It's just an apple core....RUBBISH. The sign then went on to explain something about food scraps being the same as any other litter.

Before that I used to think that food waste was fine to throw out/leave behind but I do take some of the other points that if everyone threw out their food waste it would get pretty icky pretty quickly.

It's funny but the words on that sign have always stuck in my head so I don't throw out fruit scraps now.
 
Yes, it is littering. In future, why not just take a container and bring it home with you for your own compost bin?

I get so annoyed at places like (some - most?) schools there is no recycling and recyclable stuff is thrown in the bins that will end up as landfill.

Wylie, I work in a school and we have tried recycling bins. Unfortunately not all kids do the right thing, and if rubbish is put in the recycling bin then the whole lot is contaminated and hence can't be used. Sadly the trial was unsuccessful, and the recycling company would no longer collect due to contamination.

We are trying again at the moment, so fingers crossed it works well.
Marg
 
I believe you about kids not bothering Marg. It always amazes me that my kids don't limit their showers without me yelling at them, or throw recycling into the general rubbish. I care about the world way more than they do. It gives me the pips, especially when people say my generation has damaged their world. If it was up to my kids, it would be a lot worse than it is now :rolleyes:.
 
Last time I left the town heading east eating an apple I finished it about 3km out of the town and threw the core out of the window.

Couldn't help but notice at that exact point there were several wild apple and peach trees growing on the roadside ...
 
Wylie, I work in a school and we have tried recycling bins. Unfortunately not all kids do the right thing, and if rubbish is put in the recycling bin then the whole lot is contaminated and hence can't be used. Sadly the trial was unsuccessful, and the recycling company would no longer collect due to contamination.

We are trying again at the moment, so fingers crossed it works well.

It's hard for little kids. I reckon the education on recycling has to start at home, Marg. Beside each bin at our kids school is a bucket for the school chooks. I've seen many lovingly prepared lunches go in those bins and kids skip off to the canteen. The chooks (and the big vege garden - every class has a plot) is a great way to teach kids about composting etc.
 
Unfortunately not all kids do the right thing, and if rubbish is put in the recycling bin then the whole lot is contaminated and hence can't be used.
It's hard for little kids..
Actually, I find that kids are better than most adults :D, presumably because they've been brought up with it and learned at school. I'm temporarily living in a complex with a big recycling skip, and every single time I put stuff in, it's full of stuff wrapped in plastic shopping bags, pizza containers, and other things that aren't recyclable (in these bins). More non-recyclables than recyclables!

Apparently about two-thirds of all Brisbane City Council recycling trucks end up going to landfill anyway, due to unacceptably high levels of contamination with non-recyclables (plastic shopping bags being the prime culprit). One piece of ceramic crockery contaminates an entire load, which is another big problem.

Recycling is so marginally environmentally effective, anyway, that I can't help but think we'd be better off trying to chip away at some of the much bigger issues. I suspect that one trip to school in the car is probably more environmentally damaging than any benefit attributable to a year's worth of recycling at home.

Usage of cars and trucks, industrial energy consumption, industrial waste, and industrial water usage, all have an environmental impact that makes our domestic recycling efforts pale into insignificance by comparison.
 
I don't think it was littering. I would have told him to watch his language in front of my kid and definitely would not have backed down.
It's a difference of opinion and sometimes you need to stand your ground especially if the other person thinks it's ok to become abusive in front of children.
 
Usage of cars and trucks, industrial energy consumption, industrial waste, and industrial water usage, all have an environmental impact that makes our domestic recycling efforts pale into insignificance by comparison.

This is soooooo true. But we, individually, cannot change this. We can individually try harder at home, and every little bit helps. To just give up and not bother at home is just not an option for me. But my kids couldn't give a toss :mad:. They did when they were in primary school, but not any more.
 
I should have said 'it's hard for little kids who don't have good examples at home'.

I'm not sure about this:

One piece of ceramic crockery contaminates an entire load, which is another big problem.

I know every recycling website says this, which makes sense because it keeps people on the ball. A few years ago I saw a TV show about a recycling centre in Sydney. Everything was dumped onto a conveyor belt and there were people pulling non recyclables off the belt. Maybe this was an usual centre (and I can understand that people would get even lazier if they knew this).
 
Recycling is so marginally environmentally effective, anyway, that I can't help but think we'd be better off trying to chip away at some of the much bigger issues. I suspect that one trip to school in the car is probably more environmentally damaging than any benefit attributable to a year's worth of recycling at home.


Being a trainee lolli-pop man, I can confirm that every morning, out of a school population of 260, there is a grand total of 6 kids in the morning that use the x-walk, and 7 kids in the afternoon. 2 of the kids are my own.


The vast bulk of the kids are dropped off in cars, and the vast bulk of those are V8 Landcruisers, Porsche Cayenne's, Pajeros, Patrols, Prado's, Troop carriers and every other 4WD imaginable. It's akin to standing on the side watching a rally bash go by.


Most of the mums drive around the corner and into the shopping centre carpark.....the doosies I see as they struggle to jockey for position with these massive cars is hilarious. I was explaining the phenomenon to the wife one day as she was standing at the x-walk with our two. The 4WD's were 8 deep, and backed up around the corner. The mothers had blocked all traffic coming both ways, along with straddling over the x-walk. Gridlocked - no-one could move, including the kids trying to cross.


In V8 4WD costing 90K that hubby bought....all OK....get out of our way.


.....in comparison, recycling the odd thing here and there is immaterial. One of our Tenants used to operate a recycling plant on one of our IP's, taking in 120 cubic metres a day. He went broke, there is no money in any of it.
 
Big Rigs

The vast bulk of the kids are dropped off in cars, and the vast bulk of those are V8 Landcruisers, Porsche Cayenne's, Pajeros, Patrols, Prado's, Troop carriers and every other 4WD imaginable. It's akin to standing on the side watching a rally bash go by.

Reminds me of that ad for a 4WD that was on Tv a while back. The start showed 2 people getting out of what was percieved to be a truck. Sounds of truck air brakes, then the camera shows 2 women waiting outside the school gate next to their large 4WD watching a third pull up in her new 4WD and saying "nice rig".
Loved that ad, nearly wet myself laughing when I first saw it because I live near a school and see that quite often.

I've always maintained that most 4WD are the wifes primary car, might be registered in hubbies name, but she drives it the most.

I was walking to school when I was 5 and from what I can remember most of the other kids did too. People are too scared to let their kids out of their sight now.

Incidently, when I was at uni, a lecturer told us of a mate of his who lived in inner city Sydney, didn't own a car and walked to work. This man worked out that by just not using a car every day, even if he never recycled, had solar hot water, grew his own veggies etc etc, that he was miles ahead of any one living out of town, living sustainably but driving even a small car to work everyday.
 
I should have said 'it's hard for little kids who don't have good examples at home'.

I'm not sure about this:



I know every recycling website says this, which makes sense because it keeps people on the ball. A few years ago I saw a TV show about a recycling centre in Sydney. Everything was dumped onto a conveyor belt and there were people pulling non recyclables off the belt. Maybe this was an usual centre (and I can understand that people would get even lazier if they knew this).

I agree. Further to this, In Canberra for the past few years they have had ads on TV about what you can recycle etc ("What can we recycle, Micheal?") and these ads went through what can be recycled and not and what you have to do, etc. Jars, tins and cartons do NOT actually have to be washed out (they let people know because people would throw it in the rubbish rather then rinse it out and recycle. :rolleyes: And not to Bag the recycling, because if it is tied up in plastic bags, they don't have the resources to go through it, so will just throw the lot out. And Lids should be taken off all containers.

:D
 
I'm not sure about this:
One piece of ceramic crockery contaminates an entire load, which is another big problem.
depreciator said:
I know every recycling website says this, which makes sense because it keeps people on the ball.
No, ceramics are a particular problem, it's not just to "keep you on the ball". Slivers of ceramics (particularly Pyrex etc) can look very similar to glass, yet they do change the viscosity of the glass and all the glass smelted together is ruined if contaminated with ceramic content, and it's usually not detected until the whole lot's melted and it doesn't look right. Not only is the product, ie the melted glass, lost, more significantly, the whole place shuts down while the vat is emptied and cleaned out, etc. Ceramics are consequently one of the most problematic contaminants faced by recycling plants.

See, for example, this article in "Waste Management" (one of my faves - I'm thinking of getting a subscription ;)).
 
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