Matt Heath: Why you shouldn't throw apple cores out car windows

Photo / 123RF

OPINION:

Is it okay to throw apple cores out your car window? I say no.

The war in Ukraine, Covid restrictions and the out-of-control cost of living put fruit disposal low on the list of Kiwi concerns. I still found it annoying when my friend did it last Thursday. 3pm, we're driving down Great North Rd, and the dirty bastard sent a core flying into a gutter. He argued that it's not only his right to throw apples but that it is good for the city.

It would've been easy to label him a fruit fascist and accuse him of being in bed with bottle smashers, wrapper dumpers and park defecators. I didn't do that because that would be straw-manning his argument.

The honourable and productive way to debate is to create a steel-man version of an opposing opinion. A straw-man argument is a misrepresentation of a viewpoint.

Scarecrows are easier to knock down than real people. Straw-manning is often done by unfairly associating an opinion with the worst people, actions or things in that sphere. Straw-man arguments frequently throw around unfounded ists and isms, and they're nearly always ad hoc.

Steel manning is the opposite. You construct the strongest, fairest form of the opposing argument and fight it head-on. The aim is to test your beliefs against the best possible version of the other view. If you win, you strengthen your ability defend your view, and both parties move closer to the truth. If you lose, you were wrong. In which case, you thank your opponent for putting you straight.

Straw-manning is social media's friend. It's the reason arguments burn hot and go nowhere. It never convinces your opponent because you're not actually arguing the point they've made. As a result, straw-manning generally descends into petty abuse.

So what is the steel-man argument for throwing apple cores out the window of a car? Here's my friend's position put as strongly as I can (he agrees this is a fair representation).

1. It isn't against the law. 2. No one gets hurt. 3. An apple core is biodegradable and doesn't need to be cleaned up so it's not litter. 4. If we put it in the rubbish, it will just end up in landfill; it's better rotting out in the world. 5. The core will feed birds and other creatures, and we want more of them. 6. It could grow into a tree and produce free fruit.

To defeat this steel-man argument, I reached out to Isabel Gailer from the media communications department at Auckland Council. Fighting with authority and facts is always a good idea.

Point 1 is an easy one to defeat. There is a $100 fine for littering any item under one litre in volume. This includes things as small as an apple core.

Point 2. Isabel stated: "Anything thrown from a car could hit another car or cyclist, causing distractions, accidents and injuries. A few years ago, we had an accident where this happened, and a cyclist was killed'.

Finally, a single paragraph from the council knocks back points 3,4,5 and 6. "Food waste attracts rats before it has time to compost, and will not usefully compost in urban areas. The council spends a significant amount on predator and pest control, so it makes sense to discourage any addition to their food source. Fruit grown on the roadside becomes contaminated by airborne and run-off pollutants from traffic."

Boom! Now that is a solid response. We defeated the best form of my friend's argument, and we did it in a sober, logical and fair manner. With that in mind, next time you have a piece of fruit in a car, you have a choice. Do the right thing or become a fruit fascist, with no love for your country. A sexist piece of crap, no better than those a-holes who roll shopping trolleys down banks and spray paint obscenities on lovely old ladies' fences.