On tossing food waste

10 Oct 2007

Got questions about the environment? Ask Umbra.

Dear Umbra,

I am a college student. I eat a lot on the go. Not fast food or boxed meals, but when I leave my dorm I usually grab an apple, banana, or other fruit/veggie to eat as I walk to my destination. I don't compost, instead I just throw the banana peel or apple core into the bushes. I like the thought that maybe one day my apple core will become an apple, or that my banana peel will help nourish that piece of ground/animals in the area over ending up in a landfill. To me this eco-littering is an opportunity for new life. I know that it takes a long time to biodegrade as a piece of fruit tossed in the bushes, but I think that, on a smaller scale (not all of society throwing their food scraps into our green places), it's not a bad thing. But I've heard that this eco-littering isn't terribly good. I don't really know and I kinda like my fantasy world where it is. Is my eco-littering OK? Should I start to properly compost my food?

Brendan
Moscow, Idaho

Dearest Brendan,

Mulch what you don't munch.

Photo: iStockphoto

Many angles to consider here -- or, there's more than one way to peel this apple. Is that the expression? Am I conflating skinning a cat with peel me a grape?

We'll sort through the peelings, but let's start with the end and say: It would be better to properly compost your food.

Partly this has to do with citizenship. What you are doing is just plain old littering, and from a civic standpoint, it's improper. Mind you, I think most people throw food into the bushes one way or another. My mother threw apple cores out the car window into roadside woodlands, I throw plum pits under the apple trees in my back yard. But one is not meant to do it in either frequented public places or in remote locales; other people who encounter your litter may find it repulsive. It may spoil their pleasant bush-side jaunt, they may feel the need to clean up after you, they may be gardeners maintaining the bushes who find your rotten leavings. We vote, and recycle, and drive less, because we believe that one person has an impact. By this logic, one person's litter makes a difference. Not a good difference. There should be all types of activism in the environmental movement, but I don't think fruit rinds send a clear enough message to count as activism.

At an ecological level, discarded fruit leavings are not the cat's meow either. Almost none of the produce you discard will sprout new life. An apple seed or a plum pit might, because these grow in your area, but due to the unpredictable nature of sexual reproduction in domesticated tree fruit, the resultant tree would likely be a weird, unrecognizable, and less tasty fruit. If you live in a human-dominated landscape, it will be torn up. Any animals that eat the fruit will be scavengers who have other food sources, because no animal could build a life on waiting for banana peels. In a worst-case scenario, an innocent animal would eat your garbage and suffer indigestion or death. (I'm kind of making the death part up, but it doesn't seem utterly out of the question.)

Ask Umbra continues below

ADVERTISING POLICY

Those are some of the reasons why we should stop throwing our produce bits about. True, one alternative is to throw them in the garbage, where they will be interred for centuries. But the other alternative, composting them, fulfills almost all the aspects of your fantasy world. If you were to compost your pits and peels, they would transform themselves into nourishing plant nutrients. Composted material isn't just more aesthetically pleasing than rotting banana peels, it has a chemical and structural difference that is beneficial to plants. If you then threw this material under the bushes -- oh, happy bushie day.

Luckily for you, basic information about all sorts of composting is just a click away, on this very website. May your fantasy life simply improve as you change your leftover hummus into humus.

Painfully,
Umbra

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Please send Umbra any nagging question pertaining to the environment -- but first check out her FAQs!

The claims made in this column may not reflect the views of this magazine. Neither the magazine nor the author guarantees that any advice contained in this column is wise or safe. Please use this column at your own risk.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

Comments: (23 comments)

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NO TO ECO-LITTERING

#1 - It brings wild and domestic animals to areas where they can be hit by cars.

#2 - Unless you like increasing the population of rats and other rodents, do the world a favor and properly dispose of your trash!

by reidhaus at 10:22 AM on 10 Oct 2007

unintended consequences

It was recently pointed out by the Audubon Society that food scraps thrown out along highways attract not just the wild rodents, but also the hawks that feed on them. The birds are not attuned to the speeding cars and trucks and are frequently struck as they fly to or from their prey.

by rkw at 10:37 AM on 10 Oct 2007

Consider other species!

Tossing food scraps, regardless of how quickly they may decompose, it a bad thing because it will attract animals. Personally I love all animals, but many people don't and attracting urban wildlife to congested areas could lead to awful, intolerant people harming the animals or more animals hit by cars, etc.

Umbra, tell your mother than tossing scraps out of car windows only invites wildlife dangerously close to roads. There are many more fatalities caused by animals scavanging near roadways than you'd like to think. Millions and millions of innocent animals are hit by cars every year. You need to think how your personal choices impact other species besides humans, down the proverbial stream.

by estark at 10:53 AM on 10 Oct 2007

Thanks

I was always wondering about this! thanks for the good question!

www.campusprogress.org

by tboggia at 11:39 AM on 10 Oct 2007

Good Answer Umbra

Composting is an excellent way to change "garbage" into a useful, wanted product.
Most of us did this for years before we had garbage pickup; we had to do something with spoiled items that didn't ruin our area. Today you only have to think about it, and take time to save a little more of our planet.

Tom Trevathan

by tomtrevathan at 12:05 PM on 10 Oct 2007

Banana peels do not compost in most US climates

Anyone who lived in an arid region and has tried to compost banana peels, or oranges for that matter know it takes much longer then other fruit and veggies (corn cobs take awhile too), so throwing a banana peel into the bushes really is just littering, cause it ain't going nowhere via compost. I don't even bother composting tropical fruit remains where I live at 7000 ft. elevation. It takes years and I just end up pulling the still intact peels out and tossing them to get at my real compost anyway.

I had not thought about tossing fruits (that do compost quickly) out a car window as detrimental by attracting wild life close to the road. Very good point, I'll get my apple core tossing boyfriend to knock that off!

by tmurphyaz at 1:00 PM on 10 Oct 2007

Composting is fun ... and addicting

I've recently begun composting for the myriad of reasons listed ... mostly to cut down on smelly kitchen waste and have an unlimited supply of free potting soil. I got pretty into it, however, and find myself addicted ... I've gone as far as saving the grounds from our office coffeemaker and asking others for their discarded banana peels. I keep an old yogurt container (one of the big, 32-oz ones) at the office and throw my apple cores, tea bags, and other compostables in it throughout my workday, then empty it at home and bring it back the next day. The portable compost container could be a solution for the student consuming their fruity snacks on the way to class/work/etc ... at least until they get to a trash can.

by kstepan at 1:37 PM on 10 Oct 2007

Tossing Food Scraps by the roadside

Another thing to consider is that when you toss food scraps by the side of the road, you do indeed provide a food source for wild animals. The food lures the animals to the edge of the roadside to dine and then become the casualties of vehicular traffic. Most folks in wildlife management know this to be true but the word rarely gets out.

by cferoni at 1:48 PM on 10 Oct 2007

Wake up, dude.

This person is a college student. He's talking about throwing stuff around on campus? Hello? Don't those guys in the uniforms (They're called 'groundskeepers")have enough student litter to pick up? Never mind the eco slant, just stop being stupid, Brendan.

by gwood at 3:12 PM on 10 Oct 2007

creating food pests

In my college town this also seems to be a problem, one of dumping food waste into parks and byways of the town. What this has succeeded in accomplishing is a boom in the rat, racoon and skunk populations. These animals become quite aggressive when the food supply is deemed insufficient by the animals. Leading to instances where racoons claw sidings off apartment buildings (this appears to be the primary area where the students leave their leftovers to share with nature) among other problems exhibited. The quote "A fed bear is a dead bear" also applies to other wildlife.
Do us all a favor, put garbage in the trash. If that doesn't "A Peel" then try to start a composting program on campus.

by sppur848 at 3:51 PM on 10 Oct 2007

Food scraps

Tosing food scraps on the road side is good for the enviremont in the long run. So a few squirrels get run over by our cars. I don't know about banana peels, if you can't eat them or recycle them, what are you gonna do? They gotta be good for something!

by dbeerslayer at 9:25 PM on 10 Oct 2007
[ Parent ]

Disposing of organic garbage

Brendan, Brendan - c'mon, admit that your little 'habit' is really just extended laziness. After all, you would expend the same energy just dropping the leftovers as you stroll to school (where you might learn that good manners make good sense) as you do in popping them into the bushes. But the bushes allow you to 'think' you are being ecological in your laziness.

As many of the other posters tell you ecology means actual work. It's not easy. But surely the school has a re-cycling program - just eat a little more slowly and make it last until you get there.

Des Emery

by Des Emery at 9:39 PM on 10 Oct 2007

Thank you

As a college student in an urban area I see this all the time and now I can be more effective when trying to convince people to stop doing this. Thanks Umbra and posters , you've done it again!

by econpolyeco at 6:45 AM on 11 Oct 2007

on tossing biodegradable trash into the wild

Two more reasons NOT to do it:

Litter attracts litter, even if it's biodegradable. People see one piece of litter and they think "this is where some one else did it, so I can too". Pretty soon you have lots of litter.
Humans carry germs that can make animals sick. So even if you think it will compost or not attract an animal to a dangerous place or not become something animals come to depend on, any animal that might eat or even smell that waste can get sick and make others sick as well.

Waste in Place! Do the planet a favor and compost your biodegradable garbage. You are doing the world a disservice by tossing it anywhere else.

by The Recycling Lady at 7:24 AM on 11 Oct 2007

bio-degradables in the bushes

I am finding that I disagree with most of you on this issue! (Hope this doesn't make me a sociopath or a public enemy...) It's just that, I fear that the most zealous of us "greenies" might end up tying ourselves down with so much petty fuss over minutia that we impede ourselves from accomplishing things that truly make a difference. I mean, I myself have gone through phases where I became a really sanctimonious "greener-than-thou" puritan over truly negligible things...and ended up putting my life in such a bind that I then had to resort to desperate measures--like extra driving--just to catch up at work or school and pay the bills! I do believe there is a place for common sense over apple cores and banana peels. Think before you throw. Of course you don't want to throw it beside a highway and attract deer to become roadkill and endanger drivers! But if you're walking through campus, what's wrong with stubbing your toe into some mulch, dropping an apple core in it, and covering it back over? Or throwing the core on a roof so a bird can pick at it? C'mon, let's not become our own saboteurs. There's important things to deal with, like driving less (or not at all), saving energy, or pressuring politicians to give renewable energy a fair and fighting chance...(I could go on and on, but I've wasted enough time talking about banana peels!)

by Rudmin the Green at 8:05 PM on 11 Oct 2007

one more thing...

I forgot to say...The whole reason I feel that this whole thing is pretty negligible is, think how much material is dropped by trees all the time, much of which takes a long time to bio-degrade. Pinecones...nuts...leaves...bark...branches...so what's a measly apple core in the whole scheme of things? It's completely natural to have dried bits of plant material laying around on the ground. Please!

by Rudmin the Green at 8:10 PM on 11 Oct 2007

oops...

I don't like the way my "tone" appears in the above comments. (If a moderator is reading this, please remove my two above comments. Thanks!)
I guess I agree with all you pro-composters afterall. Just, please don't burn me in efiggy if I take a calculated shortcut and stick an apple core in some landscaping mulch. I guess that is composting right?

by Rudmin the Green at 8:49 PM on 11 Oct 2007

My Question and the Responses

I am wrote this question because this is something I am interested in learning about and making sure my actions are the best possible. Like all people I am somewhere in a process. About a year ago I started thinking about how many cores, banana peels, and fruit/veggie remains I throw away while away from home (I do compost at home). I thought, well, maybe if I put this, out of site, buried in a bush it will become a natural compost. I adopted this a theme for dealing with natural food waste in my life while traveling. One day before throwing a peach seed out the window of my car I thought about if my seed landed in the road it could possibly lead to more road kill. A side affect of my action which I did not want. So from then on I didn't throw my seeds into the road, either hanging onto them or making sure that they went beyond the road. Around campus we recycle food in dining halls, but we don't recycle food waste that one eats outside of the dining hall. I am on the Students for Sustainable Food board and working to make a change in this regard. Nonetheless until I read Umbra's response I thought that by my putting food out of site and buried in bushes or the ground was ok. I was stoked that my question was answered and at this opportunity to have a better, more effective environmental impact. I attempt to take what I learn and try to do something about it. I strive, like I imagine nearly everyone who looks at or is involved with this website, to be an environmentalist. Everyday I go out of my way to act as positively as I can based upon what I know. Everyday I try to learn more so that I will be able to be a better person. We all have a similar cause, we are really all working together. I've been told that my environmental preeching and actions can be a turn off. I think it is true. To often in the environmental movement we aren't as nurturing as we should be. Posted comments say things like 'Never mind the eco slant, just stop being stupid, Brendan.' or 'Brendan, Brendan - c'mon, admit that your little 'habit' is really just extended laziness.' Those comments don't help. One, these are not encouraging. Two, they aren't true. I honestly thought this was the best way for me to go about it. Apparently not. I'm sure we all do many things that aren't lazy because of our love for the environment. For me this is a daily occurance. I used to go out of my way to not throw food into trash cans, and rather look to find a good spot to let it naturally degrade. Now I go out of my way to make sure I compost my compostable food. I ate an apple on the way to a party tonight. I hid my apple core outside of the house. On my way back I took my apple with me to my room and put it into my new compost container (old plastic container) in my room. I also found a nearby garden where they compost and where I can put my food waste.
Even comments which seem resonable may not be encouraging or helpful. 'Do us all a favor, put garbage in the trash.' Contrast that to this 'I was always wondering about this! thanks for the good question!' The first one definitely does not encourage one. Rather it seems to say with negative undertones, stop causing problems, throw your food away. Whereas I would definitely appreciate a response like 'People 'eco littering' has always been a pet pieve of mine. I'm glad that you took the initiative and questioned whether what you are doing is right. I am also glad that there is so much positive knowledge out there to be shared. I know a lot about the postive impacts of composting vs. 'eco littering. If you have any questions or want to learn more don't hesitate to contact me at bob@gmail.com.'
One of the great ways to help the movement is through education and supporting each other to be environmental in many ways. I don't think I am holier than thou. Honestly I think that in some ways each of us are probably all more environmental than the other. Thats awesome. I don't want to tell you how I am more environmental than you, rather I want to know and practice what works well for you. I want your suggestions on how to be as environmental as possible. By educating and encouraging each other I think we can grow as people and improve the environment.
I'm sorry if this being so long is an inconvience to anyone. It is just what stood out to me after seeing that my question was answered and reading the responses. I'd be happy to hear about what you think about my thoughts, and to learn from what anyone has to share.

by mzungumasai at 1:09 AM on 12 Oct 2007

Subtlety in the question

Rudmin and Brendan, don't be so hard on yourselves.

It's all in how the question is phrased. Terms like "Eco-littering" are inherently judgemental and unproductive in the context of the question. The origin of the fruit (domestic or foreign) may or may not have a bearing on the answer either.

Gardeners who grow their own food know how the system works. We compost whatever we can get in our yard. I pick up bags of leaves my neighbors have so carefully collected and put out, from up and down the street to enrich my garden soil each fall. A few passes over it with my mulching mower and I have 2 inches of rich leaf mulch to protect my garden from winter rains. I bring coffee grounds home from the office to keep them out of a landfill and reuse the organic material naturally scattered across my lawn.

The poster who mentioned how much natural material comes out of trees and bushes each year, is right. One apple core is miniscule in comparison. Nature is equipped to compost, if we can provide the material in a form she can use to our mutual advantage.

I have a reusable ziploc bag in my pack which I use to carry home my compostables (my first preference). But I have also been known in a pinch to do the following: break the apple core into tiny pieces and scatter it or bury it under some mulch. I feel this is okay because a.) it is no longer recognizable as human origin (litter); b.) I know it will break down quickly on the geologic timeframe, and is still far better for the planet than putting that item in a landfill forever.

We all know that "Compost Happens". I say any composting (done responsibly so as not to cause odors or attract vermin) is better than landfilling.

Think of the apples that fall in the orchards, at this time of year. What happens to them? They rot. It is how nature works. The orchards are not overrun with rats, people. Maybe a few bees scavenging the sugar for their nests.

Obviously the questioner had already given this much thought and deserves a far more subtle answer than Umbra provided today. Guerilla eco-composting of food waste can be done responsibly, and need not consist of wantonly tossing a recognizable piece of garbage onto a roadside or into the nearest shrubbery.

Everyone lives in a watershed. Get into yours, and make a positive difference locally today.

by 2wheelsgood at 5:41 PM on 12 Oct 2007

Yet ANOTHER different reason NOT to do it!

Reading these comments has been instructive to me: I often fling my breakfast banana peel or apple core on my drive in to work. But no more! And NOT for any of the above reasons!

No one has said anything about setting a good example for any children who may be watching. If kids happen to witness my fruit flotsam flying, they may think littering is okay! Bad!

by BayardSquareHood at 7:08 PM on 12 Oct 2007

apple cores

Brendan, please accept my heartfelt apologies for the unnecessary put-down I sent earlier. Actually, you are correct in making sure the leftover fruit is buried, not just dropped behind you somewhere. My mistake. We who have so much can often take nature's largesse for granted. It is good to see someone put a value on something so many of us treat as nothing but garbage to be gotten rid of.

Des Emery

by Des Emery at 8:56 PM on 12 Oct 2007
[ Parent ]

Thanks

Thanks. This is very postive and supportive.

by mzungumasai at 12:48 AM on 13 Oct 2007
[ Parent ]

I'M W/ RUDMIN

--use judgement to where it's pitched but better in nature as extra mulch as opposed to filling a landfill that much more quickly, preserved w/ no air. I'm talkin' into or on mulch, into the base of shrubs. How many would carry TO class, hold it ("Where are those gnats from?" to get home to the apt-composter/ worm colony?

by hillhi at 11:59 AM on 15 Oct 2007

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