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Watching children play with random garbage found on the side of the road (and their parents futilely trying to stop them), the following question came to my mind:

If you pick up a piece of garbage, examine it, and then put it back on the ground, do you violate any littering laws?

In other words, do you, by touching the garbage, somehow become "responsible" for disposing it? In the example situation above: Can the parents tell the kids to just put the trash back where they found it, or do they need to carry it with them until they find a trash can?

This is a purely hypothetical question out of curiosity, so answers for any jurisdiction (that has laws against littering) are fine.

Heinzi
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The specific details and penalties will vary from place to place, but here's an example from Rising Sun, Indiana:

It shall be unlawful for any person to place, cause or allow to be thrown or disposed of in any similar matter, any litter along or one any public place, except in authorized litter receptacles maintained on such public place or public property.

The definition of "litter" doesn't specify any exception based on where the litter originated. So I think if you pick it up, then drop it where you found it, you have technically "placed" it there and the above applies.

I looked at a few other litter laws and they tend to be similar.

Basically, if you could have thrown it in a trash receptacle and dropped it on the ground instead, you're littering. Once you decide to pick it up, you're responsible for it.

Barmar
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