12k Tons of Dumped Orange Peel Grew into a Landscape Nobody Expected (2017)
by pulisse on 4/7/2026, 3:47:16 PM
Comments
by: jillesvangurp
Turning degraded land back into fertile land is actually very feasible and not as hopeless as it may seem. A lot of the damage people have done to landscapes in recent centuries is still reversible. There are a lot of examples all over the world of people turning dried out and heavily eroded land back into fertile land with great bio diversity.<p>Sometimes at small scale, and sometimes at very large scale. Often even just leaving it alone, and putting a stop to the practices that destroyed the land, (e.g. keeping the grazers out) sometimes is all that is needed. For example, a simple fence can allow vegetation to re-establish itself without getting destroyed by hungry deer, sheep, or whatever.<p>Once you have plants with deep roots, the land gets better at retaining water and soil stops eroding away. Once the land can retain water, a lot of life can make use of that. Nature tends to be resilient and adaptable. There are no one size fits all solutions for every landscape. But there are a lot of things that have been tried that have yielded good results.<p>In any case, stuff like this is not as surprising as it seems. Organic matter rots. That usually involves a lot of bacteria and insects. The result is basically compost. A giant heap of compost and a lot of wild seeds from neighboring grounds with a bit of water is one hell of a good way to kickstart nature. Probably the best decision was to leave it alone.
4/7/2026, 5:51:38 PM
by: bennettnate5
> Despite this promising start, the conservation experiment wasn't to last, after a rival juice manufacturer called TicoFruit sued Del Oro, alleging that its competitor had "defiled a national park".<p>No good deed goes unpunished--wild that the competitor company successfully sued them.
4/7/2026, 6:08:51 PM
by: ethagnawl
It's recently occurred to me how "valuable" today's trash is likely to be considered in the future. I'll focus on organics here but I think the plastics will be equally valuable, too.<p>I have no idea what % of American households compost or live in places which offer municipal compost pickup but I imagine it's in the single digits. As evidenced by this article, compost is/can be an incredibly powerful agent of change: food production, habitat restoration, etc. However, most of us are putting organics into refuse streams where they're likely to be burned or buried in a way that's actually harmful because they release methane when they decompose under those conditions. It can be a bit gross and tedious to compost at home but there is a certain satisfaction which comes along with it.
4/7/2026, 4:44:42 PM
by: mynegation
They could not find the site and searched for it for years. A stark reminder that civilian use of GPS is relatively recent thing. The site was created in 1990s and GPS was opened for civilian use only in 1995 and gained equal accuracy by legislation in 2000.
4/7/2026, 5:07:01 PM
by: MisterTea
> As for how the orange peels were able to regenerate the site so effectively in just 16 years of isolation, nobody's entirely sure.<p>We now understand that fungus plays a vital role in the soil ecosystem. And given how easily fruit and vegetables rot and get moldy, the orange peel mass sounds like the perfect layer for the fungus to thrive in. The dead earth received a live giving blanket yielding healthy soil vegetation can thrive in.
4/7/2026, 4:35:45 PM
by: proee
One risk here is that a giant pile of biomass could allow nefarious critters to grow disproportionately. For example, in Alaska, they had giant brush piles that ended up fueling beetle infestations across the state.
4/7/2026, 4:21:23 PM
by: arnorhs
Does orange peel not produce any CO2 / methane when left like this? I'm assuming there is some negative carbon footprint before this becomes a positive?<p>The ecological win definitely looks nice on paper, but whenever people talk about compost the carbon footprint / gas emissions is always at the front of people's minds, and I don't really see that discussed in the article.<p>The article does say<p>> Especially since, in addition to the double-win of dealing with waste and revitalising barren landscapes, richer woodlands also sequester greater amounts of carbon from the atmosphere – meaning little plots of regenerated land like this could ultimately help save the planet.<p>How long will it take for it to cross the CO2-neutral mark? Maybe a silly question, definitely not my area of expertese.
4/7/2026, 4:57:51 PM
by: throwway262515
> As for how the orange peels were able to regenerate the site so effectively in just 16 years of isolation, nobody's entirely sure.<p>Another data point to the thesis that it's not the earth that needs saving, it's human systems. If disruption becomes the order of the day, who's impacted the worst?
4/7/2026, 4:28:28 PM
by: contingencies
The whole compost thing can be a lot of hassle for people. For a simpler option, if you are lucky enough to have a decent garden area, find somewhere away from your house and just throw biomass there regularly. Coffee grinds, spent tea, leftover veg, etc. and watch what happens! Sometimes simple is best.
4/7/2026, 6:17:41 PM
by: asplake
Previously: <a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?q=orange+peel" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?q=orange+peel</a>
4/7/2026, 4:42:28 PM
by: mrtnmcc
Suppose this is the article to give your friend when he chides you for dropping an orange peel on a hike.
4/7/2026, 4:58:13 PM
by: skipants
> Despite this promising start, the conservation experiment wasn't to last, after a rival juice manufacturer called TicoFruit sued Del Oro, alleging that its competitor had "defiled a national park".<p>... why does TicoFruit even care? Did they just see their competitor do something that might be good for people and sue them out of spite?
4/7/2026, 4:14:43 PM
by: bell-cot
This being HN - might there be any Costa Rican lawyers in the house?<p>It would be extremely interesting to hear about the legal merits of the rival company's lawsuit, and the politics of the Supreme Court.
4/7/2026, 4:27:57 PM
by: mikkupikku
> <i>Despite this promising start, the conservation experiment wasn't to last, after a rival juice manufacturer called TicoFruit sued Del Oro, alleging that its competitor had "defiled a national park".</i><p>This is why we can't have nice things. Juice company makes compost? Sued! Ford wants to pay his workers a living wage? Sued! Nail lawyers to trees.
4/7/2026, 6:07:11 PM
by: Mistletoe
Monty Don has said before that really the best and only thing you need for a great garden soil is regular addition of lots of compost. This is it on a very large scale. :)
4/7/2026, 5:06:17 PM
by: comrade1234
Why dump the peel when you can use the entire orange to make that nasty orange British drink.
4/7/2026, 4:34:14 PM