You might be driving down the road one day and you are faced with the dilema of having to get rid of that cigarette butt, that piece of gum that you chewed the life out of, or that half a cup of coffee that is about to ruin your interior because you just now discovered that the cup has a pinhole leak.
The Trash Hatch™ is a nifty little device that can be installed on the floor in front of the driver's seat or it can be retro-fitted into the center console. This permits you to discreetly discard small amounts of trash on the road without facing the citation from a police officer or the embarassment of other angry drivers as they glare at you.
Open the hatch while going down the highway and release your trash! Nobody will know that it came from YOUR car because it will appear that you drove over what someone else ahead of you probably threw out the window.-- Jscotty, Sep 22 2006 Now who left fishbones all over the road like that.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 22 2006 //Nobody will know //
Yeah, but we know now, so here's a "citizen's citation" [-].-- pertinax, Sep 22 2006 Shouldn't the category be "Tools to commit crimes:minor"(-)-- Galbinus_Caeli, Sep 22 2006 I might feel differently about this if it were a caltrop hatch.-- Shz, Sep 22 2006 I think they did something similar in the movie "Night Shift" The garbage was deposited in a compartment in the center console and pneumatically pushed to the trunk. The "star" of the show then puched the button that opened the trunk and dumped it, right on the highway.
The scene did make me contemplate the size of the marked for expensive auto accessories built just for rednecks.-- Dinoman, Sep 22 2006 By /marked / I meant "market" Must be a keyboard problem with my machine.-- Dinoman, Sep 22 2006 See the "edit" button under your annotations? That's so you can go back and fix typos, stuff like that.-- jutta, Sep 22 2006 I knew a guy whose father was a beer-drinking alcoholic, and his solution to the commute home involved a funnel and hose through the truck floorboard. Probably a trucker tool as well.
[-] for dropping anything on the highway.-- normzone, Sep 22 2006 oops, this morning I was here real early and must have hit the + instead of the -, sorry. I can't stand littering in any way, shape or form and a *sneaky* litterbug would be the worst of all.-- xandram, Sep 22 2006 And I had my autoboner turned off. Sorry.-- phundug, Sep 22 2006 [-] for littering.-- fridge duck, Sep 22 2006 + from me. But I'm thinking more along the lines committing one minor crime in order to avoid being busted for a more serious offense.-- Noexit, Sep 22 2006 //Open the hatch while going down the highway and release your trash!// Isn't this what cars already do to the climate? A very smelly fishbone for thinking that this could ever be considered a worthy notion. What does the TM stand for? - is it Totally Moronic by any chance?-- xenzag, Sep 22 2006 "That's true, you guys do need *something* to do when you grow up" = my response, if lucky enough to think of it.-- phundug, Sep 22 2006 Hmmmm. Dump trash on highway. Get busted. Pick up trash off the highway.
Ironic.-- DesertFox, Sep 22 2006 Now, if you were to put a tiny disposable garbage bag at the bottom of your trash hatch, so at the end of your journey you can just take the bag and throw it into a trash can (prominent in parking lots), your idea would have been a) good, and b) baked. Cars definitely need some sort of easy-to-clean trash bin, because the ashtrays are too small, and too hard to clean, so most of the trash like paper wrappers and soda cans ends up littering the floor beneath the passengers' feet indefinitely. But since you advise to just dump the trash on the road, a) that's illegal, and b) that's what most people already do, so that isn't really an invention.-- Veho, Sep 23 2006 nice idea [Veho]. I just carry a small paper bag in my car, for tissues, chewed gum, wrappers etc.-- xandram, Sep 23 2006 baked: my girlfriends '73 beetle has no drivers side floor.-- bleh, Sep 23 2006 Some 10 years ago I was cycling on Ferry Rd in Christchurch, NZ. Some young male driver threw away a some rubbish from the roof hatch of his car while he overtook me. I stopped my bicycle and picked up the rubbish. Then I caught up him on the next traffic lights and rode beside him. "You dropped this mate" I said and dropped the rubbish back into his car from the open roof hatch. He had a funny look on his face but did not say anything, lol.-- Pellepeloton, Sep 24 2006 Here's a thought. At the next stoplight, open your window and dump the contents of that leaky coffee cup on the road. Can they fine you for littering with a liquid? I think not. Keep the empty cup in your car to catch that cigarette butt, the wad of over-chewed gum, and whatever else you might be tempted to toss out (mother-in-law?) so when you arrive at your destination you can truly put your trash where it belongs.-- Canuck, Sep 24 2006 I bite my lip and grab the steering wheel REALLY REALLY HARD to keep from demonstrating "ramming speed!" on every mouthbreather I see who flips yet another of those damn cigarette butts onto my clean countryside. If littering is made even easier and more subtle, then how am I supposed to know whom to hate? Where does the ramming stop?
Fishbone, composted and cleanly returned to mother Earth.-- elhigh, Sep 24 2006 People are voting against this because they hate littering, while I'm voting for it because I hate government.-- ldischler, Sep 25 2006 The only things you can legally litter on the highway in my state are chicken feathers and water.-- normzone, Sep 25 2006 In the nautical world, it is possible to dispose of liquid effluent from storage tanks, but only beyond the "3-mile" zone in coastal waters. Most inland lakes, rivers, bays, etc are considered "no discharge" zones.
Penalties are extreme for those caught disposing of waste (especially plastic, which can cause death among wildlife) improperly. A "macerator" which chews up waste into small bits is still required.-- csea, Sep 26 2006 man, your pitch is all wrong 'cause nobody likes a litterbug. Call it a "Roach Hatch," a way to discreetly make sure the product is not on your person in the event that you get busted (God forbid) while bakin' out the old jalopy. then you get all the stoner HBer's support (check out all the smoking ideas ;)-- Eugene, Sep 26 2006 awsome idea! this should come standard on every car. double plus good bun for you.-- ServoMan314, Jun 17 2008 random, halfbakery