joe_5700

I see many banana peels on the shoulders of state/county highways all of the time. I thought they were placed there to cause me harm. A week later going on the same roads, the banana peels seem to disappear and reappear in other areas. This would support the 48 hour breakdown time another poster described. Now if the banana peel has a sticker on it, then yeah you are littering.

Uni-Vibe

TX state law says it's litter. Out on a two lane road, I say fling 'em in the ditch, they'll be gone quick.

Nerdanel 

imho, no. Banana peels are so good for plants, and rot so quickly, that they are a positive addition to the green environment if you are really throwing them into the bushes. At the base of a fire hydrant, not so much.

WR3K

it's not garbage, its a part of nature that is practically engineered to be left around by animals to help make more soil and give nutrients to plants.


if you dont throw it on the streets or in someone's property, then it is actually very nice of you to give the local insect communities a new adventure and mission

Atol

No, it's not littering.

Anyone who says otherwise hates Earth.

Randochap

Biodegradable ... so no.

Edsplace

It urks me to see banana peels littering the road. Gives cyclists a bad rap. Have the decency to toss it off the road into the dirt or a bush or shove it back in your jersey.

Another alternative is to throw one in the blender with your favorite electrolyte supplement and drink it as you ride.

old and new

Absolutely NOT. I don't feel the need to explain that

mattm

He said in the bushes though.

I say no, even if directly on the road.

ChristopherM

+1

Metzinger

I leave my peels wherever the f@#% I want.
Like here, for example.

garethzbarker

I used to throw apple cores and banana peels out of my car window. did it all my life. then one day some hippy yelled at me. i turned around not to start a fight but i was thinking, "This will be good." So i figure i have him in this argument until he explained to me that sweet fruits bring animals to the road and they get hit. i didn't really have an answer to that so now i only throw biocrap in canals or over bridges.

Trsnrtr

I say no. I live on the edge of the universe (woods) and have thrown banana peels down while mowing. The ants have found it within a circuit or two with the mower and something else must get the rest because it's gone by the time I mow the next time, usually 4-5 days.

Reynolds 

+1

H1449-6

Exactly.

jdon

The hippie was right. Toss the peels but far enough off the road so animals don't get hit by cars.

Garfield Cat

During rides, my sinuses get a workout and I often have to clear them. So I spit. I guess that would be littering too. In Singapore, if caught, I might get flogged for that.

noisebeam

Yes. It can take many weeks to degrade. In hot dry places like where I live it can take many months.

Uni-Vibe

In hot humid places like where I live it's gone in a matter of days.

noisebeam

So it is OK to create litter if for a few days? Yuck.

njkayaker

So, if you do it. what keeps other people from doing it? How long to ugly banana peels take to disappear? If banana peels are OK, what about orange peels? Paper is biodegradable too. Is tossing McDonald's wrappers out OK?

The problem is that other people might not want to see your rotting garbage.

So, instead of a simple easy-to-follow rule (eg, "never litter"), the rule should be changed to be based on some temperature and degree of humidity and rate of degradation? If you ride the same route everyday and eat two bananas, then the bananas are never "gone"!

grolby

I've seen several people in this thread say something like this, so time to stop this crap before it gets any worse: biodegradability does not equal environmental harmlessness. Oil is a particularly good example; the stuff is complex organic molecules of biotic origin, most of which may be broken down by a large variety of microorganisms. And yet, spilling the stuff on the ground is pretty hazardous. Small amounts may not do much obvious damage, but it's a serious toxin and groundwater contaminant.

Of course, banana peels are more benign than oil, which is most infamous for being spilled in enormous quantities, something that doesn't happen with banana peels, but the point remains that biodegradable materials can cause all sorts of problems when disposed of improperly (luring animals to roadsides is a good example).

I'm not saying that you should landfill your banana peels or even that you should never throw them in the woods, but they should be disposed of and allowed to biodegrade responsibly. Mostly, stop believing the biodegradability makes something environmentally benign. It's simply not true.

Cateye

Nope

Griffin2020

I just got a fabulous image of a boatload of banana peels being spilled and spreading across the beaches of Central America...

rumrunn6

woodduck - why does that car have a roll bar?