Viewing 40 posts - 41 through 80 (of 130 total)
  • So what’s the STW banana skin view?
  • Nico
    Free Member

    Throwing a banana skin into a hedge which divides a farmers field from a road isn’t going to do much harm. It won’t grow into a banana tree and any diseases it carries aren’t going to affect the local banana industry. It looks very slightly minging for a couple of years but isn’t the ecological disaster that the road and the farmers’ fields are.

    On a mountainside is more offensive, though you’d need an awful lot of banana skins to change the pH of the mountainside, whereas your bike will do much more harm.

    Even so, are you a total slob, or what?

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    Not at all. We are quite a few posts in and so far no-one has been able to tell me what actual damage or harm happens as a result of my actions.

    Try rolling them up and sticking them in your ears because you are plainly nor interested in hearing any of the arguments against you just littering.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    lucky7500

    Subscriber

    What is the consensus on what should be done with the banana skin once it’s taken home? Presumably put it in a plastic bag and send it to landfill.

    You don’t have food waste recycling?

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    Drac
    Full Member

    Take them home with you unless you’re a scruffy lazy git.

    damascus
    Free Member

    If you can be bothered to take a banana skin off the mountain, just don’t take it with you, eat it in the car before you go.

    Some fruits have wax sprayed on the skin to give a longer shelf life. The wax prevents them rotting away quickly.

    Isn’t this also a major problem on the walk to everest base camp?

    jamesco
    Full Member

    Two years for a banana skin to decompose ? WTAF?

    damascus
    Free Member

    Two years for a banana skin to decompose ? WTAF?

    Perhaps we need a stw experiment to check? 🤔

    v8ninety
    Full Member

    Generally I am a scruffy lazy git, and I still manage to take all of my rubbish home with me, so I object on behalf of scruffy lazy hits everywhere…

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    What Nico says ^^.

    Fields, hedges etc fine. They disappear within a couple of days.

    Mountains, no. Partly it’s just much more exposed so any form of litter stands out much more, partly there’s nowhere for it to rot down.

    jamesco
    Full Member

    ok, I eat a banana most weekdays and the skins are black in my snap tin when I get home, I’ll start hanging them on a fence at work and monitor them rather than chucking them on our compost heap, yikes is that not a ‘good thing’….?

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    What is the consensus on what should be done with the banana skin once it’s taken home?

    I’ve this thing called a compost heap.
    Helpful as ever, our council also collect compost materials and hot compost the lot a few miles from my house.
    I can then collect the soil created, should I wish, a few weeks later.

    I’m also of the view that you don’t throw a skin anywhere – forest, field, hill. I’ve even started taking my coffee grounds home, for many years I dug and dumped them.

    The only thing I leave now is pee and poop.

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    Fields, hedges etc fine. They disappear within a couple of days.

    Sauce?

    It may be some poor farmer is clearing it up so his animals don’t eat them…?

    johnnystorm
    Full Member

    Food waste collection is a thing of the past around here, nice while it lasted. Have to pay extra to have garden waste recycled and you mustn’t mix the two.

    Chap at work leaves a bucket in each of the welfare rooms so he can collect up the banana skins for his allotment.

    funkmasterp
    Full Member

    Isn’t this also a major problem on the walk to everest base camp?

    I think dead bodies, empty oxygen bottles and tents are a bigger issue than banana skins in this case.

    damascus
    Free Member

    @funkmasterp hopefully not at the base camp!

    There’s a 15 day hike a lot of tourists walk to the base camp. It’s along this route the banana skins are left.

    Higher up the mountain above base camp maybe.

    docgeoffyjones
    Full Member

    The only thing I leave now is pee and poop.

    If you carried it there you can carry it home.

    funkmasterp
    Full Member

    @funkmasterp hopefully not at the base camp!

    Reading comprehension fail for me there. They should move some of the bodies down there. Try and put people off

    wobbliscott
    Free Member

    I used to discard them but don’t anymore. They do take longer to decompose. I once found a banana skin in the bottom of a bag that had been there for a good couple of years. It still hasn’t decomposed. It was black and shrivelled but still there. I’m not sure what they’re made of but not so sure they benefit the environment all that much. Nothing eats them. The things don’t even burn on the BBQ so clearly built to withstand all nature can throw at it. I still chuck apple cores away, they decompose a lot quicker. However for a while now on the bike i’ve switched to dried banana chips and dried mango. Very tasty, better form factor for fitting in your pocket. Doesn’t go all mushy if it’s hot and stuffed in there with other stuff and more convenient to eat on the move. And no skin to deal with.

    breadcrumb
    Full Member

    I generally don’t take bananas with me when I’m riding as they get a bit battered.

    No way does it take 2 years for one to decompose, we’d have half rotten bananas everywhere!

    slowoldman
    Full Member

    Just to come back with my view – I’m very much in the “leave nothing but footprints” camp. I can’t abide any sort of litter, decomposable or not. It’s unsightly and unnecessary and at worse presents the view to others that it’s OK to dump stuff you can’t be bothered to carry back down the hill even though you were prepared to carry something heavier uo it.

    jimmy
    Full Member

    On the 2 years figure, it needs some context. If you left an Oak branch on top of Ben Nevis I’m sure the leaves wouldn’t decompose in 2 years (they’d blow away right enough).

    Whoever said it is situational is right – they would take 2 years to decompose in that environment and therefore the quantity of them makes it unpleasant and unsightly. I’m not disagreeing with it, or saying dropping skins is OK, but the arguments need to be applicable to the situation. Otherwise, Brexit.

    tjagain
    Full Member

    Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints

    Sandwich
    Full Member

    I’ve even started taking my coffee grounds home, for many years I dug and dumped them.

    Good job too as caffeine is produced to reduce competition from other plant life as the coffee bush grows. IT’s a really poor soil conditioner in the garden for this reason.

    futonrivercrossing
    Free Member

    Can someone show a picture of a 2 year old banana skin please, I’ve just google imaged, and not got a single picture.

    wobbliscott
    Free Member

    No way does it take 2 years for one to decompose, we’d have half rotten bananas everywhere!

    No, it takes longer than 2 years…it still hadn’t decomposed after circa 2 years in the bottom of the bag. It had shrivelled, was black, rock hard and didn’t smell at all. It was a bit like a mummified Egyptian’s willy… I know it was two years as it had been hanging in my garage for two years since I’d last used it on a walking holiday. I’m not really sure what a rotten banana looks like. Ones that are left in my fruit bowl for weeks go black and very soft but don’t grow mould or rot down even though fruit around it might go mouldy and nasty looking, they just seem to continually degrade. Take the fruit out of the skin and the skin dries out and just shrivels and goes hard. Whatever they are made out of doesn’t seem to rot or break down. Maybe sitting in my bag affects the decomposition process with the absence of sunlight and bugs and other stuff it would be exposed to in the open, but I’m pretty sure if it was an apple or something else it would have been a furry mouldy and smelly mess.

    ransos
    Free Member

    Can someone show a picture of a 2 year old banana skin please, I’ve just google imaged, and not got a single picture.

    You want its birth certificate too?

    supernova
    Full Member

    Discarded banana skins and orange peel always really annoy me. It’s obviously litter unless you live in a place where they grow. So apple cores are fine in hedgerows but not on mountainsides, banana peel in the Seychelles and oranges in Seville. Don’t be a dick, take your litter home.

    greatbeardedone
    Free Member

    I always take my litter home
    But, whoevers in charge of Ben Nevis (and the surrounding hills) should be making an attempt to build up the soil levels on the hillside.

    In ecological terms, it’s not long since the last ice sheets left and the forces of erosion (wind, water and temperature) have not yet provided enough of a soil base.

    The lack of a sufficient soil base means that there are no trees on the hillsides, except at the lowest levels.

    No trees means an exposed hillside.

    An exposed hillside means no-where to take shelter from lightning or wind and rain.

    That’s what puts me off ever going up there…and I’d hate to be ‘caught short’ on that track😟

    n0b0dy0ftheg0at
    Free Member

    Why do guinea pigs go mental for banana skins? All six of ours over the last ~10 years love them.

    Is there no guinea pig rescue centre near Ben Nevis?

    tjagain
    Full Member

    Anyone carry their shit out? Its now recommended ( certainly for some areas)

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    Anyone carry their shit out?

    Yes, Outward Bound courses do I’m told.

    thestabiliser
    Free Member

    You can prevent this scourge by wrapping your banana skins in a crisp packet before disposal

    jag61
    Full Member

    In 10or 12 outward bound trips to Ullswater with 100s of kids in total the poo tube was knowingly deployed only twice when they realise what they will have to carry out!! Carry your crap out with you please

    RamseyNeil
    Free Member

    Classic STW . This will probably run to 100 posts . I chuck mine away just off the trai and still sleep at night .

    croe
    Free Member

    The lack of a sufficient soil base means that there are no trees on the hillsides, except at the lowest levels.

    The tree line in Scotland is only around 600m.

    ads678
    Full Member

    Classic STW . This will probably run to 100 posts . I chuck mine away just off the trai and still sleep at night .

    Then you’re a massive tosspiece.

    cbike
    Free Member

    Banana skins and human shite and human ashes sprinkled from urns introduce nutrients to places with unique and delicate flora and fauna. You don’t go skipping about on cryptobiotic soil in some places in Moab if you can possibly avoid it. I’m sure some mountain bikers with massive camelbaks can dispose of all their waste responsibly. Maybe take some extra home too?

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    Still waiting for Trailwaggers, RNs addresses so we know where to leave our banana skins.

    slackalice
    Free Member

    I asked a similar question about discarding non native food waste to the farm manager just the other day, it wasn’t in relation to banana skins though…

    Potatoes. The estate grows and farms a lot of potatoes and inevitably, some remain in the ground, others are dropped or fall out of the Bailey trailers. How do these non native tubers affect the soil and ecosystem, in much the same manner a banana skin might? Was my specific question.

    He shrugged his shoulders.

    Custodians of the land 😉

    molgrips
    Free Member

    No way does it take 2 years for one to decompose, we’d have half rotten bananas everywhere!

    We do (on the mountains), that’s the whole issue.

Viewing 40 posts - 41 through 80 (of 130 total)

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