Throwing my banana...

I was once accosted for throwing a banana peel in the bushes. Do you pack out your banana peels??????

Yes, I do.  I follow the Leave No Trace (LNT)  principle as strictly as possible.  While banana peels may be considered "biodegradable,"  they likely aren't native to the area in which you were climbing and are probably not suitable for local animals to eat.  Introducing anything foreign into an ecosystem can only be benign at best.  It is impossible to know the domino effect you might set off.  And finally, it just looks bad.  I have never accosted anyone about tossing an apple core or banana peel, but I do cringe when I see it.

Here is the LNT take on the matter. https://lnt.org/about/faq/can-i-leave-biodegradable-waste-eg-apple-core-or-banana-peel-woods-long-i-hide-or-burry-it 

Pack it out. 

Leaving banana peels, pistachio shells, etc is undesirable for the reasons mentioned above. 

They are non-native, and even if biodegradable, will take time before decaying, forcing others to climb amidst your trash until that happens.

A big pile of steaming poop is also biodegradable, but pretty universally regarded as unacceptable.

My approach, if I see someone littering, is to politely ask if they plan on picking up whatever it is, orange peel, cigarette butt, whatever. 

If they say no, I just do it myself and carry on.

It's not my job to tell others how to behave, but it is my responsibility to make the crags a better place.

I've gotten so much out of climbing. As have most of you reading this.

Time to pay back.

A lot of things are biodegradable, it doesn't mean you just throw it in the bushes. 

Whether biodegradable or not, it’s still not very appealing to see. (Edit for the non punny folks... a peel-ing)

If it doesn't grow here, it doesn't go here.

Mason Stone wrote:

Mediocre and Eric,

Agreed, consider my question though. And I like this from Mark:

"It's not my job to tell others how to behave, but it is my responsibility to make the crags a better place."

That's what I mean by moral and ethical.

I also pack other people's trash out, this is indirect instruction for people I climb with or near, doesn't take more than a few seconds and very little effort. And, I try to instruct directly, as mentioned above, when lives are at stake.

Whats your question? When do we contact other climbers or Are you a good/bad person for tossing your peel? Will tossing your peel affect/not affect others?

When do we contact other climbers?- I think you laid out a pretty good scenario or 2. 

Are you a good/bad person for tossing your peel? Will tossing your peel affect/not affect others?- I don't know that I'd go so far as to say that you're a bad person, but I feel like thiis orange peel/banana peel question is really common sense and that I learned not to do this in junior high. Biodegradable time is going to be affected by the environment where you are. A peel is going to degrade at different rates if you're climbing at Index, an alpine route at 8000 feet or cragging at Indian Creek.Seeing these peels does affect me because it's litter. And now I've got to deal with someone elses junk that I feel was most commonly left there because they thought it would biodegrade. 

I agree with the indirect instruction and making the crag a better place. I pick up litter that I see, as long as it doesn't look like something that has bodily fluid on it, because typically I'm not equipped to handle that when I'm out climbing. 

Tradiban wrote:

I was once accosted for throwing a banana peel in the bushes. Do you pack out your banana peels??????

Yes. 

Leave no trace. Pack out everything. Approach others nicely about it and explain the reasoning behind packing out everything. We all need to be educators to those who might be new to the outdoors and not understand the LNT ethic yet. Just be courteous. 

Define accosted in the banana peel throwing incident.  I want to imagine a brawl, but maybe it was just a stern talking to?

I was probably less polite than I could have been. I don't really remember exactly.

What about tossing apple cores in an orchard?

Troyswank wrote:

What about tossing apple cores in an orchard?

I'll allow it.

I either pack them out or bury them off trail somewhere 

Do people pack out pee?

AaronP wrote:

Do people pack out pee?

Drink to replenish nutrients.

caesar.salad wrote:

Drink to replenish nutrients.

Pro tip: mix with stratch labs to make it more palatable.

AaronP wrote:

Pro tip: mix with stratch labs to make it more palatable.

Nuun tabs work well too.

So last winter on a multi day trip in the Adirondack’s my son in law rolled an ankle we had at least a day and a half hike to get back out ( at normal pace) so we were debating on what to do with him....

In the same vein as this (people not taking responsibility for their own trash/conversely, taking responsibility for all trash at a crag) what do you find causes you to take ownership of a crag? If it's your local place, do you feel like you should be taking care of it? Why or why not?

 [Explanation: I run trail days for some local crags, and most recently we had a volunteer trail day at a very popular crag where no volunteers showed up -- even as many climbers used the routes we were working at, and asked us about trail days, nobody seemed to be interested in helping, future trail days, etc. It seemed that everyone felt "someone else will show up to the trail day", and nobody actually showed up. Any insight to attracting volunteers would be appreciated!]