[Closed] Banana skins

[url= http://extra.mdc.mo.gov/nomoretrash/facts/ ]3 to 4 weeks[/url] according to some random site that doesn't seem to cite anywhere for its decomposition information.
Hope that helps 🙂

bad for the environment? what happens when the fall from the tree in the natural world?

Best thing to do is wrap them in a plastic bag or two and send them to the landfill, rather than let them rot down harmlessly in the hedge. definately

It seems a little uncaring to lob it into a tree but it is organic and it will decomose quickly.

I lob my banana skins away but I usually throw them out of sight. They'll be gone before anyone finds them and will do the environment good with their nutrients.

Don't like it? Bite me.

timc - do you have banana trees in your neck of the woods?

Decomposition depends on, amongst other things, the temperature. In the froze north, banana skins take a lot longer to decompose.

Anyway, I don't see why anyone (cyclists included) can't just take them home with them and dispose of them like any other litter.

Best thing to do is wrap them in a plastic bag or two and send them to the landfill, rather than let them rot down harmlessly in the hedge. definately

I always eat bananas on a ride and thats always been my argument when seen throwing them off to the side of trails by walkers. Why let them decompose naturally in a week or two when you can prolong it in a plastic rubbish bag 🙄

At the top of Ben Nevis it takes months and makes the soil too fertile.

druidh... take longer to decompose in he cold north, so what??? it doesn't mater... its needs to decompose somewhere doesn't it, so why not in a bush in the countryside?

They make the soil too fertile on Ben nevis do they? what have this effects of this been then?

I don't know of any cyclists that eat bananas whilst cycling, let alone ones that dispose of banana skins in hedges whilst doing so. Bit lumpy. It's all jelly babies round here. I do wonder about the composition of people that compose these threads though.

[duncan_bannantyne] Let me tell you where I am [/db].

This has rankled with me since reading a post on here a year or so ago, whereupon a guide in foreign climes (honestly can't remember his handle) forced one of his clients to go and retrieve a skin thrown into a bush. It sounded like the client was horribly humiliated in front of all the other guests and was made to feel like he'd chucked a bag of sh1te out of his car window.

I'm most definitely in the camp which believes a well hidden skin is better off decomposing in natural surrounds than in a bin bag in a landfill.

EDIT; and for that reason, hope ye slip on my discarded skin - what tyres for banana skids?

Like all similar issues i 'd say its not straight forward.

A banana skin on an open moor or countryside will, like discarded food attract rodents. In spots where stopping is popular they will be on large enough numbers to upset the balance of naturally occuring birds and mammals.

For this reason I'm for bury or take home for composting, except in colder climbs where talking home not in plastic Bag for composting is best.

Where exactly did you see the offending peel? I know a banana addict that cycles 😆

ah **** it. I'll confess. I'm collecting them to throw at old ladies as I whizz past. It's a hobby of mine. An old lady shouted at me one day because I let the dog do a poo in public, and I've hated old people ever since. I've constructed a special peelholder machined out of a solid billet of alu and a secret special bar mount of my own design. I've got bicyclists testing them all over the country at the mo. They'll be in production around December. Any colour you want.

I just eat them with the skins on. Saves having to chuck anything away.

I threw one in a hedge this morning but it was pretty remote and it was out of sight so it's OK...

I hate bananas, so it wasn't me.

Take nothing but photographs. leave noting but footprints (tyretracks)

always take everything home. Banana Skins can take years to degrade depending on where discarded.

[i]Banana Skins can take years to degrade[/i]

really? years? wow. do they do damage though?

do they do damage though?

and makes the soil too fertile

bringing it back arround to dog s**t.......

It's not just the smell/toxixity that causes problems, over time if it builds up in the soil it over enriches it.

Whether thats the top of a mountain or sand dunes that then leads to different plants takeing root and the loss of the original habitiat. In the case of dunes, depending on the management stratergy of the owner they can disapeer very quickly indeed if the righ ballance of plants isn't maintained.

Obviously that depends on where you are, a bridleway in the home counties isn't going to suffer in the same way from a few bannana skins.

really? years? wow. do they do damage though?

Don't you remember the great banana plague of '04? How soon we forget.

[i]years to degrade depending on where discarded[/i]

Is there a map of where al fresco banana composting is acceptable/not allowed we can refer to?

I've been discarding banana skins in the same piece of woodland round my way for years, it's not carpeted in yellow yet.

I'm collecting them to throw at old ladies as I whizz past.

Ah, so it's you is it? Only the other day, a lady round our way was the victim of a drive-by fruiting.

My brother commutes down a country lane and makes a point of throwing a banana skin into the same garden every day, just to be able to imagine the owners' confusion.

wwaswas

Is there a map of where al fresco banana composting is acceptable/not allowed we can refer to?

Its never acceptable. Take it home with you.

emsz

really? years? wow. do they do damage though?

alter the soil composition and attract animals

[i]a drive-by fruiting[/i]

are coconuts fruit?

[i]Its never acceptable.[/i]

It's perfectly acceptable to me 🙂

This has rankled with me since reading a post on here a year or so ago, whereupon a guide in foreign climes (honestly can't remember his handle) forced one of his clients to go and retrieve a skin thrown into a bush. It sounded like the client was horribly humiliated in front of all the other guests and was made to feel like he'd chucked a bag of sh1te out of his car window.

I don't know where that was, but I know guides in New Zealand are very hot on people chucking apple cores away because they are a non native species and can cause all manner of problems. Maybe there was something similar in this case. Non native species are a real problem in isolated places like nz where there hasn't been the same intermingling of many species that you get in Europe. I think some high mountain environments are similarly fragile as not many species get up that high or something.

TJ, ok, alter the soil? one banana?

attract animals? which are going to do what? Eat it? Problem solved, yes?

Banana Skins can take years to degrade depending on where discarded.

Yes, TJ. I always try to avoid discarding them on the surface of the moon to avoid this issue. Or on my regular trips to the Arctic Circle. However, when i'm in the UK, I expect about a month to decompose. 🙄

emsz.

the point is that if you can do it everyone can and at popular spots it becomes not one banana but many plus all manner of other biodegradable stuff.

Take nothing but photos leave nothing but footprints is how we should all operate

[i]Take nothing but photos leave nothing but footprints is how we should all operate [/i]

So I can't take my memories with me and I can't leave them behind?

I only ever eat nannas when road riding, in a ditch with the skin is OK with me

I remember being taught at school that:
it's fine to throw indigenous organic waste away in the countryside as it will decompose fairly quickly..
But as banana skins take a notoriously long time to degrade and being outside of their natural distribution, our colder climate means that they take a lot longer.. so we were taught not to lob them out as animals have trouble digesting the skin..

I have no idea how much of this is scientific fact.. although if my dog gets hold of a 'nana she has been known to poo out the whole skin the next day..

🙄 STW never ceases to amaze me!

What about all those birds that s**t all over the land TJ spreading seeds from the fruit that they eat... it is a travesty I tell thee! The ecosystem will be in turmoil.

maxray - native species distributing native seeds. Thats how the ecosystem works

if you can't see the difference I am surprised.

A banana is not a native of GB

Throwing banana skins is littering.

You are not a native of Scotland, yet you reside there.

Is an ecosystem suffering because you are misplaced?

Given that a banana isn't likely to germinate if discarded, I'm struggling with the relevance of the 'not a native species' theory

A tomato isn't either but the amount of tomato seeds that get distributed all over the country is colossal

Discarding banana skins is discriminatory to clowns.

alter the soil composition and attract animals

Attracting animals in the countryside? Whatever next? 🙄

Are there any 'facts' about banana skins altering soil composition for us to peruse?

A banana is not a native of GB

So I'm OK with apple cores, bits of flapjack and cake crumbs then?

[i]Throwing banana skins is littering.[/i]

hmmmm, ok I think your right, i think i'll take them home from now on.

So I'm OK with apple cores

which apples though?

not all are native to the UK 😀

Orange pips? - what about them?

I've taken to splitting the skin into 3 or 4 bits and chucking them in different directions. Just make sure they land on the ground and not hung off a branch somewhere. I ride in wooded areas and would definitely not eat one on the go on the road bike, it's a good excuse to stop!

But yes, they do release things into the soil that aren't typically present.

Bit of a c*ntish thing to do into someone's garden, some people take great pride in theirs. Just look at the feedback to a "rate my ride" photo to see how pedantic STWers are about lawns, pointing and sheds.

Maybe the answer is to wrap the skin in a tissue and compost it when you get back in? No slime, no plastic.

Discarding banana skins is discriminatory to clowns.

True, but it does provide jobs for people who manufacture slide whistles.

How did I know TJ would be Pro taking skins home.

They go brown and are hard to find in a few days. After a week they are fertaliser.

Better than buying mars bars and throwing their wrappers in a bin IMO.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8263161.stm

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

TJ FTW.

They go brown and are hard to find in a few days. After a week they are fertaliser.

So they -are- the same as dog poo then!

soma - years not days

So they -are- the same as dog poo then!

I see what you're saying. We should put banana skins in plasic bags and hang them on trees 😉

TJ your saying it takes a banana skin years to go brown?

No - but they can take years to degrade.

so ? they still degrade don't they ?

Great, so after days your left with something the same size and colour as a stick. Which takes years to degrade a bit like a stick?

+1

not at all convinced by the 'years to degrade' argument anyhow.

So popular spots become littered with banana skins in the process of degrading.

I am astounded you guys cannot see this. Its about respect for the countryside. You don't leave anything behind you. Just take your banana skins home.

Every workday lunchtime for years I used to throw a banana skin over a railway bridge. Imagine my surprise when one day the bridge was being rebuilt and I noticed the pile of brown banana skins in the undergrowth!

maxray - native species distributing native seeds. Thats how the ecosystem works

Thanks Mr Patron of Ising 😉

It was tongue in cheek, I thought you might have realised.

The trust estimates that there are now 1,000 banana skins strewn across Ben Nevis

ACE! wonder how much time and resources they spent working that out 😯

maxray

It was tongue in cheek, I thought you might have realised.

straight over my head 😳

So popular spots become littered with banana skins in the process of degrading.

it's not litter, it's nature. if it caused plant or habitat destruction i wouldn't do it.

trailmonkey - really? You have banana trees in your part of the UK?

i said it's nature - things decomposing in the wild.

i didn't say that bananas were indigenous.

and yes, banana plants will grow this far south iirc even if they will not fruit

TJ - I'd agree re: ecological sensitive areas but the majority of us ride on the edges of urban areas in aqlready managed environemnts (whether that's woodland or farmland) the impact of banana skins in such areas is irrelevant compared with the other enviromental factors at work affecting the 'natural' ecology.

Thats the problem - bananas being non indigenous we do not have the flora and fauna and climatic conditions to degrade them - so they hang around for years. see rockeitmans post above

Thats the problem - bananas being non indigenous we do not have the flora and fauna and climatic conditions to degrade them - so they hang around for years. see rockeitmans post above

but it's not a problem, people just seem to want to make it one.

wwaswas - so because the environment is degraded than its OK to degrade it further? How about a few plastic bags or old car tyres?

TandemJeremy - Member
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8263161.stm

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

Paper bag - 1 month

Apple core - 8 weeks

Orange peel and banana skins - 2 years

Great! I'll slice it into a paper bag and throw that away instead! Paper is indigenous to the UK!

I think I understand now.

Birds flying between lands, dropping food waste = nature.
People flying between lands, dropping food waste = ecological menace.

Glad we cleared that up.

[i]wwaswas - so because the environment is degraded than its OK to degrade it further[/i]

other than taking a bit of time to compost I've not seen any evidence presented that a banana skin discarded in the middle of a hedge or whatever does degrade the environment in these areas.

looks like a menace to me:
[img] [/img]

PP - its the potassium in them.

Im sure this has happened before.

TJ has sided on some argument about environment impact. Then used some extreme case such as the caingorms plateau.

In reality most of us ride in the outskirts of Birmingham,London,Bristol,Manchester,Leeds etc

Im sorry but there is no way a banana plant is going out grow the native plants found in these parts.

And if its chucked in a bush no one will even see it.

I though banana trees were really difficult to grow anyhow and need to be grown from cuttings, I though the seeds stopped working once domesticated.

"Cultivated bananas are parthenocarpic, which makes them sterile and unable to produce viable seeds"

Also in most of Mid to lowland England maybe not scotland of the high peak/lakes. The banana can not possibly alter the soil to any great extent.

I just find is astonishing that so many of you consider littering to be acceptable.

If some littering is acceptable such as banana skins then why not dog shit, horse shit, old car tyres, skipfulls of rubble?

TJ Its not littering if its degrading, horse shit does loads of it in the New Forest its just grass after all.

Birds flying between lands, dropping food waste = nature.
People flying between lands, dropping food waste = ecological menace.

A bit off topic, but in New Zealand where I was talking about, I doubt many birds fly there and bring food waste from other countries? Thinking about it, I don't know how fast birds fly, or how long they take between poos, but I'm guessing that no birds can go 1000 miles before having a poo?

I think most of us have enough common sense to realise that the dropping of a bannana skin in local coutnryside or woods, is not the same thing as somewhere ecologically sensitive such as the Cairngorns or Ben Nevis.

Besides until McDonalds etc do something about their packaging blight, I dont think Im going to worry too much about the odd rogue skin lobbed in a bush.

soma rich - but thats the point - they take years to degrade so it is littering

Bigyinn - so that some people make a bigger mess entitles you to litter?

[i]skipfulls of rubble? [/i]

If I could get one in my camelbak I'd be up for that.

In the meantime, I'll continue chuckign the odd item of biodegradble waste on the ground and off the beaten track in areas that are, bascially, pretty suburban anyway.

soma rich - but thats the point - they take years to degrade so it is littering

[b]your[/b] definition.

I find it astonishing that you still take the odd bath when showers are so much more efficient, TJ but there you go. You're clearly an eco-vandal.

Sorry but I'll still throw bananas away in hedges. As ever, I won't throw them somewhere that they're highly visible or likely to pile up while decomposing. Common sense as usual.

it is not littering TJ to most people because it will degrade...you may as well call skimming stones littering as I have moved them from one place to another.
TBH it dependswhere i am I would not do it on fairly barren rock but would amongst trees or other areas where our native rabbits and squirells can eat it under the rhododendron etc