Yesterday a mate and I were out over the moors, sat by the trail side enjoying a bite ,breather and sunshine. Along comes a Redsock, stops for a friendly chat and as he leaves comments “Those take over a year to rot down you know ” motioning to two banana skins and strides off. We looked at each other flabbergasted . Now I was always taught to take litter home but that strategically placed ie; out of sight /harms way , banana skins ,apple cores orange peel and the like contributed to the soil and minerals plus a bit of snap for foraging insects and birds etc. Now we all know a banana skin is brown and rotting in a few hours , so I wondered what other people do/think about this , pointless thread I know but I’m sick of arguing about Di and it’s pissing down here.

I have read the same and carry mine out.

oh TJ loves this subject too 🙂

Banana skins rot pretty fast in anywhere hot enough for them to grow, but over here they take ages. Not sure about orange peel… Apples cores are fine because something wild will eat them and they rot much faster. I’d take skins/peel home with you.

Banana skins can and do take a long time to rot down. take it in. take it out.

Of course ben nevis is a extreme example but there are othe rexamples of this.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/banana_skins_ruining_ben_nevis_claim_environmentalists_1_471099

Interestingly as we finished up a sheep came by , obviously used to scavenging from lunching passers by, and ATE the banana skins ! A farmer near here is feeding his cows on reject supermarket bananas – thats where I get mine – they are fine .

I fail to see the “damage” or “ruin” a rotting banana skin causes. It doesnt pollute or injure anyhting. Sticks take a while to rot away too..

I don’t like bananas anyway so I’m not guilty of this but I chuck apple cores away.

Carry it in, carry it out.

The skins can hang around for a couple of years – despite what you say about it being all warm and fuzzy helping the animals/insects.

Tell me where your garden is so I can leave all my banana skins there.

Bananas stink up your camelbak badly particularly when squashed.

Take anything home that wouldn’t be native to the natural environment you’re in.

Point taken, will keep it clean.
Just a thought though -does it matter if something takes 2 years to rot may be it’s more benificial that way? Appreciate that bananas are not native and a bit unsightly but hey yeah chunky my wife can’t get enough compost for her garden so bring it here . In another vein , all the Nimby s near here who are ‘right on’ greenies, were up in arms about the proposal for a green waste composting site 1/2 mile away , talk about hipocrisy!

hugor – Member

Bananas stink up your camelbak badly particularly when squashed

Yeah funny how quickly they rot in there.

Introducing a ‘foreign’ food source can damage the local environment and can have a massive effect on the food chain and the native species that live within it.

Its basic ecology

Take anything home that is not native to the environment you’re in. Like your wee – keep that in a bottle, oh, and sweep up your tyre tracks, they are very damaging to the environment and look awful too.

I treat them like dead bodies – bury them.

I hang them back onto the trees.

I smoke them..

It’s true, bananas take ages to rot. You can see this by observing how long they last in a fruit bowl.

I’d think that if banana skins were a part of the natural environment of the place, then how long they would take to rot would be irrelevant, as the location is already optimised for dealing with them.

My POV on taking them home is that pure wild environments are precious and rare, it’s good to leave them be as much as reasonably possible. A tiny bit of contamination is still contamination.

I was reading about Scottish Wildcats recently, there are less than 400 pure-breeds left. The biggest threat is not environment but interbreeding with ferals/domestics. Every time that happens all descendants of that litter, even if raised wild by a Wildcat mother, are not Wildcats and that bloodline is lost forever and they compete with the pure-breeds too.

Are you not supposed to eat the skin bit too then? 😯

My compost bin must be a biohazard, a dozen a week go in there.

I was reading about Scottish Wildcats recently, there are less than 400 pure-breeds left. The biggest threat is not environment but interbreeding

😀

lol did you make that or have it ready just for the Wildcat offshoot of a future banana skin thread?

I blame this guy.

I’m in the ‘take it in – take it out’ camp. I put the banana in a little food bag. Saves a squishy skin messing up your camelbak.

How do we stand on dog turds in bags hanging from trees?

With a pair of step ladders.

I thought this was gonna be another trail sabotage thread!

Introducing a ‘foreign’ food source can damage the local environment and can have a massive effect on the food chain and the native species that live within it.

Which is why all imported food gone to waste is shipped back to country of origin. We have no non native breeds in this country and all migrating birds are forbidden to land.

This country is more racist than I realised.

🙂 at mudshark

I leave my skins under a rock or somewhere covered over, not too sure why, I think I might start taking them out with me.

Why hasn’t any body mentioned the obvious,the trails are slippy enough at the moment without all you nana munchers adding another hazard,take the slippery little buggers home!!

I put the banana in a little food bag

I wonder which is more environmentally damaging, a banana skin in a bush or a banana skin rotting inside a poly bag in landfill..

At the very least they look out of place. If you are going to dump them at least try to do it discreetly

20 odd years of riding in the same area and I always bury a skin/core/turd in the woods off the trail. I do carry out( not turds they go under a rock far from the path plus use the rock bum wipe system) on open exposed hills. Not noticed any catastrophic environmental changes. If anyone can convince me that this is really harmful I will stop with immediate effect.

Toys – the best would be banana skins composted in controlled conditions.

Tang – one skin makes no significant difference. Thousands in areas where rotting is slow does. NO huge harm but it is unsightly and I have seen multiple banana skins in popular areas

Apple cores is an intersting debate – one old railway line I know of has a fair few mature apple tress growing alongside it – presumably grown from discarded cores. Is that a bad thing?

If anyone can convince me that this is really harmful I will stop with immediate effect.

I think wiping your bum with rocks is potentially harmful but who am I to argue with somebody with 20 years experience.