[crazydave]

Hikers: eat bananas ? but take your skins home | Environment | The Guardian

[oly]

I have always thought that they would degrade in a short time and fertilize the soil.

[Mac]

I knew it took a while - but didnt realize 2 years. Might be different down here in FL where it is warm and moist year round....things seem to degrade faster.

I do tend to bury orange peels/banana peels instead of just chucking them. I guess I do that to not leave a trace...

Good article - thanks for sharing

[Dick]

I guess it comes down to how heavy the traffic is. I don’t see it as a problem, other than an aesthetic one. They turn dark brown PDQ and are, for the most part, indiscernible within a week.
Here the problem is more with attracting bears. It’s not fair / safe for the hikers coming up the trail behind you.

[TaintRight]

What's the big deal? So it takes two years for the organics of a banana to break down. It takes a dead buzzard 18 months to degrade at 7,000 feet. And I reckon that's a lot faster than how long it takes the plastic water bottles to degrade that all these "Green" types toss out each day after "hydrating".

If you really loved the planet that much, you'd just eat the peel. Think fiber!

[George]

Natural litter is not as bad as some man-made stuff. I heard that 1 cigarette butt takes up to 10 years to decompose. Hate to think how many more are added daily to collection of carelessly disposed off garbage.

[DirtyDave]

I'm also not that fussy about natural things such as banana peels, apple cores etc. but I absolutely no tollerance for litter especially in the woods. Here on the east coast Tim Hortons is a rediculously popular coffee chain. Those coffee cups seem to find their way into all areas of the woods. I was out on a trail a couple of weeks ago and dug a couple of them out of the stream about 3km in. Thats unacceptable. "Leave nothing but footprints" is not a hard moto to live by. I even found a plastic bag of dog $h!t left on a log bench on that same trail. ?!?!?
I say that the penalty for littering should be a little more old school. Take'em to the center of town, put them in a pillory and let the crowd throw litter at them.
I'd enjoy it.