Driver fined £150 over apple core

[Edinburger]

What do you think of this?

As a driver who throws a banana skin and and apple core out of my window every day - on the basis they're biodegradable - I'm shocked!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-19846121

[Edinburger]

garyhun said:

Worlds gone mad. Not only bio degradae but food for animals.

Exactly. He'd have deserved the fine if it had been a mars bar wrapper, but an apple core...??

[Edinburger]

PurpleMoonlight said:

Edinburger said:

What do you think of this?

As a driver who throws a banana skin and and apple core out of my window every day - on the basis they're biodegradable - I'm shocked!

st is biodegradable but would you st on the street?

Would you object if I threw a leaf out of the window?

[Edinburger]

Grenoble said:

Edinburger said:

What do you think of this?

As a driver who throws a banana skin and and apple core out of my window every day - on the basis they're biodegradable - I'm shocked!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/24/bananas-litter-hikers-mountains-scotland

You know it takes 2 years?

2 years of food to some animals...

[Edinburger]

Grenoble said:

Don't get me wrong - I'm partly in agreement.

But banana skins are something I bin...

Just seems strange to me. And where I live, banana skins go in the smae bin as grass and garden waste...

[Edinburger]

The Crack Fox said:

It's not that simple though, is it ? A can in the suburbs = litter. An applecore in a hedgerow = biodegradeable goodness.

My thoughts exactly.

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streaky said:

Zeeky said:

streaky said:

Jagmanv12 said:

So throwing bread on the local duck pond is littering as well?

Yes. Bread is not a natural food for ducks, and the crap sold in supermarkets is bad for them (and swans).

The Daily Telegraph 12 November 2009 said:

Vanessa Kelly, 26, was accosted by a council warden as she and 17-month-old Harry threw the birds scraps of bread.

She has vowed to fight the council “all the way” to have the fine revoked.

Miss Kelly visited the park in Smethwick, West Mids, on Tuesday afternoon.

She said: “The warden walked towards me and asked me to stop feeding the ducks because of complaints about children slipping over on their way to school on duck mess. But there are no health and safety signs up.

"I said fair enough, but then she started doing a fine. I asked ‘what for?’ and she said 'littering.'

The fact someone has been given a penalty for littering when feeding ducks is not evidence it is contrary to the legislation. The legislation doesn't distinguish between 'natural' food or otherwise. Littering is simply disposing of your rubbish in a public place. Feeding animals is not necessarily the same as disposing of your rubbish. The issue of health and safety is irrelevant to the offence of littering.

Indeed, feeding animals is not necessarily the same as disposing of ones rubbish, but, as you say, the Act does not distinguish between the two activities, thus it might be said that Ecclesiastes 11:1 applies.

s87 Environmental Protection Act 1990 said:

Offence of leaving litter.

(1) If any person throws down, drops or otherwise deposits in, into or from any place to which this section applies, and leaves, any thing whatsoever in such circumstances as to cause, or contribute to, or tend to lead to, the defacement by litter of any place to which this section applies, he shall, subject to subsection (2) below, be guilty of an offence.

Streaky

But how is "litter" defined?

[Edinburger]

Zeeky said:

It's given its ordinary meaning as far as I can see from the legislation. If you feed animals and they eat what you have given them I cannot see how the food could be described as litter. It isn't rubbish as it isn't being disposed of. It might be the case if you feed animals and they decide not to eat it then the food becomes litter if not collected and disposed of properly.

There are undesirable consequences of feeding wildlife and so good reasons to discourage it but I would argue that feeding wildlife is not littering as the food is not being disposed of as rubbish but deposited for the purpose of feeding animals.

So why isn't throwing an apple out the car window seen as feeding wildlife rather than littering?. Banana skin too.