Think Twice Before Tossing Fruit Rinds Out Your Car Window

Many of us are guilty of thinking that tossing a banana peel or apple core out a car window is harmless. It's organic, biodegradable, and will just break down naturally, right? That carefree idea has been around for decades, but it overlooks how litter, even organic litter, actually behaves in the environment. Sure, banana peels are a staple in slapstick comedy, but they're anything but funny on the side of the highway. Throwing leftover fruit out your car window causes more harm than people realize. Just because something is biodegradable doesn't mean it magically disappears the next day. Fruit rinds, banana peels, and nut shells can take weeks or months to decompose (depending on the temperature, moisture, etc.).

Apart from that banana peel hanging around exit 287 for months, there's other reasons why you shouldn't treat Mother Earth like one big compost bin. Perhaps most importantly, think of your furry woodland friends. Any food casually tossed onto the side of a road will linger long enough to attract animals, which is the exact opposite of what you want to have happen next to a busy highway. That squished pear is gonna look mighty appealing to a hungry little Bambi scrounging for food in the nearby woods. Consider that the Humane Society and the Animal Protection Institute estimate 1 million critters die on the road every day. That horrifying fact will hopefully make you think twice before rolling down the window and letting your pistachio shells take flight.

At the end of the day, wildlife are smart and self-sufficient without us humans mucking it up. They've evolved to forage and seek shelter on their own. But even something as small as a fruit rind can teach animals to seek out human food sources, creating patterns that put them (and drivers) at risk. For the good of everyone, we want wild animals to be naturally afraid of humans instead of seeking us out as one big treat dispenser. It's the same reason there are laws that ask you not to feed seagulls at the beach or toss bread to ducks in public parks. Disrupting their natural instincts not only hurts their chances for survival, but also encourages them to remain in places they shouldn't. 

If you're cold-hearted and don't care about mammals, consider the avian family. Birds of prey love to dine and dash on rodents like rodents and squirrels. And you know what brings rodents and squirrels to the highway? Your food scraps. Owls, vultures, and eagles have a habit of swooping across a road to scoop up their dinner, without any regard for the minivan going 80 miles per hour in front of them. Remember that feeding wild animals is dumb. In most cases, it ends up going badly for the animal — often with deadly results. So, keep those fruit scraps in the car. In any case, banana peels are actually edible and great for thickening smoothies, so storing them for later is a win-win.