Originally Posted by
gadabout007
That guardian article is wrong unless you have some sort of mutant bananas in the UK. Banana peels will biodegrade naturally 3 - 5 weeks... quicker if the conditions are right. They are unrecognizable after week in my compost pile.
IMHO, the appropriateness of tossin biodegradable items depends on the situation. For example at high elevation is takes a long time for orange peels to break down. So if everyone tosses their orange peels on a heavily trafficed path above 12,000 feet, its going to impact the pristine nature of the trail.
There are also issues with introducing non indigenous elements, and altering wildlife behavior.
All that said, I'll toss a banana peel to the side of the road (hopefully well into the woods off the road) on an ordinary country road.