…one thousand trucks poured into the national park, offloading over 12,000 metric tons of sticky, mealy, orange compost onto the worn-out plot. The site was left untouched and largely unexamined for over a decade. A sign was placed to ensure future researchers could locate and study it.
16 years later, Janzen dispatched graduate student Timothy Treuer to look for the site where the food waste was dumped.
Treuer initially set out to locate the large placard that marked the plot — and failed.
In my region they rake the leaves from the town lawns and drive it away every autumn. You know, those pesky leaves could defend soil from frosts and leaves decompost and do many other ugly things that might preserve soil… This will not do.
In my area, they do that too, but it’s taken to a municipal composting spot. It’s 100% voluntary; you can leave the leaves where they lie, compost them yourself, or rake them up against the edge of your yard which is the cue for them to collect them with the big vacuum truck.
Basically, what they don’t want you to do is put them in bags to go out with the rest of your garbage.
This is what it looks like today
There are two pictures of it “currently” (I use quotes because it is a republication of an 8 year old article). And neither one really shows what it looks like today.
But there is a lot of growth. Which makes me wonder why people say to not compost citrus peels.
When we bought our composter the group selling them had a seminar as part of the purchase to teach you how to compost and no citrus was one of the top things they said with no explanation even when asked. I also used to do layouts for children’s books and one was about composting and it reiterated this.
It’s because citrus at high concentrations kills earthworms. Citrus in compost in normal quantities relative to other compostables seems to be fine, but you shouldn’t be trying to compost a huge pile of just pulp and orange peels in your back yard.
As for why this worked here, I’m sure there are a whole lot of things that aren’t earthworms living in a formerly rainforested spot in Costa Rica which can break that stuff down over 15 years.
Citrus kills earthworms? Earthworms are invasive in North America…
Earthworms are invasive in parts of North America…
A juice company-sponsored scientific article finds that juice company waste is good for the environment?
Historically, peer review has not been enough to weed out positive publication bias and outright fraud even when there was no profit motive. With a United Fruit Company/Dole-tier juice company breathing down your neck? Science… finds a way.
But there is a lot of growth. Which makes me wonder why people say to not compost citrus peels.
That was my reaction too! I read the headline and immediately thought “oh god they killed it didn’t they”. I was shocked to find out it was a resounding success, at least in comparison to the alternative of doing nothing.
It’s probably got something to do with local soil ecology or rainfall amounts, so there may still be some merit to not composting your orange peels, but this definitely makes me want to learn more about why this guidance is so heavily repeated.
I compost all my food scraps and leftovers from anything that I eat.
My personal experience is that normal food waste will not cause problems with your compost. Everything composts eventually.
why this guidance is so heavily repeated.
Not only repeated, but blindly repeated.
Rodents. Most people don’t compost properly - they leave out the cover material on the sides and top, and still believe the myth that compost needs to be turned.
The fruit smell attracts rodents. Enough cover material keeps the smell in and the edibles inaccessible. Then you can compost most of the foodstuffs you’re normally told not to (fruit, animal products, dairy, etc.). Oil is still a no-no, as I recall.
Who knew compost was good for plants?
They mention a magical yellow sign like 8 times in the article and never once show a photo. LET ME SEE THIS GIANT YELLOW SIGN.
Edit: I was wrong, article is good.
There’s a photo of the sign near the end of the article. It’s not yellow but it has yellow writing.
Ahh foiled again by the ad blocker, thanks for the heads up! I feel much better now.
Neat
dog sized weasel
Well that’s terrifying.
I guess it depends on the dog, chihuahua or Jack Russell, not so much. But a Doberman, or boxer sized weasel would be frightening.
This only works in places where the citruses would naturally grow if I’m not mistaken? Hence the “pack it in, pack it out” for many parks?
I love this.
We ought to have composting bins collected just like garbage trucks. It’d decrease the amount of garbage trucks needed and it’d fix a lot of our deforestation problems.
I might be misunderstanding what you’re saying, but don’t we already do this?
Not really, at least not where I live.
There are only two bins, trash and recycling. The city hires people to collect that, and drop it off as some facility to handle it. But we need a 3rd category, compost. Anything that’s food waste, yard trimmings, etc should be collected.
Then it can be used like in the article.
Interesting. Everywhere I’ve lived for the last 10+ years (3 cities and a rural acreage in Canada, village in Austria and visiting relatives in various towns in the UK) has had a municipal composting programme. I just assumed it was the norm now.
Hopefully you get one where you are soon!
My town has this, they turn it into compost and sell it. Which is why getting cigarette butts in there is a good size fine.
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Better to ship it half way across the planet to make broth than to restore acres of tropical forests?
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