Banana peel in the garbage

ArcticFox

I thought I'd share with you girls, my moment of horror..

I watched my neighbor eating a banana in his yard this morning, and then he strolled over to the garbage can (at the curb - it's garbage day), and toss the banana peel in the garbage.

LOL - I pretty much shuddered.. I love banana peels in the compost.. so it was unbearable to watch!

SuperGreen

LOL I feel your pain!  That would annoy me too.  DH's friends (who are big drinkers) for whatever reason will not recycle their beer bottles (!!!!)  When we're over at their house, I'll watch a whole 12-pack of bottles go right into the garbage, even though we have single-stream curbside recycling (i.e., everything goes in the same bin).  I've tried to take the bottles home with me so *I* can recycle them, but DH says "that's rude, it's their house" and won't let me

CDMay2006

Metal/glass/plastic bothers me more, but anything needlessly going in the garbage is painful.

Temp76535187505890

I hate looking down the street on trash day and seeing houses with multiple trash containers and no recycling bin.  Up until recently recycling was an additional charge but now it's included in our regular sanitation bill so I can't fathom why people don't recycle.  Ours is single stream too!!

magpie1127

Maybe I don't understand....I absolutely shudder when something recyclable is thrown in the garbage, like beer bottles/plastic/glass/paper, etc..

Why is is bad to throw a banana peel in the garbage?  It is a natural, biodegradable substance...birds eat it, mice eat it, racoons eat it......I personally have no bad thoughts about throwing an apple core out of my car window as I'm driving down a highway.  Bananas, apples, veggie seeds, etc are exactly the sort of things that are SUPPOSED to exist in the ground, under layers of sediment.  I don't understand the problem with tossing biodegradable food..(with the exception of wasting it, if you're not eating it and letting it go bad..) 

JoNi2010

magpie1127:

Maybe I don't understand....I absolutely shudder when something recyclable is thrown in the garbage, like beer bottles/plastic/glass/paper, etc..

Why is is bad to throw a banana peel in the garbage?  It is a natural, biodegradable substance...birds eat it, mice eat it, racoons eat it......I personally have no bad thoughts about throwing an apple core out of my car window as I'm driving down a highway.  Bananas, apples, veggie seeds, etc are exactly the sort of things that are SUPPOSED to exist in the ground, under layers of sediment.  I don't understand the problem with tossing biodegradable food..(with the exception of wasting it, if you're not eating it and letting it go bad..) 

I believe composting vs throwing in the trash speeds up the breaking down process so less landfill problems.  Other people here can probably give you a better answer.  I don't compost, but recycle glasses, paper, etc.  I live in an apartment where recycling is pretty inconvenient.  I would not want to start composting, especially without a balcony!  Sorry, my banana peels will be going in the trash.

CDMay2006

There are several reasons it's problematic.
- It adds unnecessarily to the filling of landfills, requiring additional land be converted to new landfills.  Food scraps make up a full third of matter going to landfills in the US (via EPA).  Composting (or utilizing a composting service) is a really easy way for our society to reduce our landfill burden by a third.  That's major!
- It diverts energy and nutrients from the apple core/banana peel/etc. from energy and nutrient cycles, so they are wasted.  When it's composted it is available to other plants via soil, and non-plants (fungi, animals, etc.) during decomposition. 
- Taking the first two together, along with rapidly increasing population, there is more and more space devoted to garbage storage, housing and commerce and less and less available for food production (conventional methods of increasing food production on limited lands lead to soil depletion, contaminated water/fish kills/etc., and genetically-engineered foods).
- When compostables go into the landfill they decompose, rapidly producing methane, which is a significantly more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2 (20x the global-warming potency).  One fifth of the US's methane emissions are from landfills (EPA).   

And regarding tossing fruit (etc.) out the window, it's not only undesireable b/c it could hit another car or pedestrian, but also takes months to decompose on the side of the road (longer in drier climates than mine).
Plus you ever notice how many raptors (birds of prey) hang out along highway roadsides?  That's b/c it's an easy place to spot prey... rodents attracted by edible roadside litter.  (About 60 million birds are killed each year by autos; this includes no-raptors, but gives you an idea of how many deaths occur in this way.)

CDMay2006

For more information on the topic:
http://www.epa.gov/region9/waste/features/foodtoenergy/
http://www.portlandonline.com/bps/index.cfm?a=111051&c=41789
http://www.gaepd.org/Documents/frd.html

ArcticFox

Food waste doesn't biodegrade nearly as well in a landfill.. plus then it is kind of useless (like not returning nutrients to something like a lawn or farm).

I'm not judging, btw.. it was more of like it killed me to see it not go in MY bin!

I live in a development where "technically" I'm not allowed to have a compost bin, and I know I'm the only one who has one.  I totally understand people who can't..