What's the harm of putting orange peels in recycling?

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by vrexy

We don't want to feed them garbage.

They still sift through the public trash cans on the street, those have no one to be held responsible for mixing landfill, food and recycling. If anything it's easier for them to dumpster dive restaurants and stores now with the "food" dumpster labeled for them.

[zugor]

Originally Posted by HappyRider

Gooey, smelly compost bins crawling with worms is where I draw the line. The earth doesn't need that much help.

Well managed compost bins need not ever be gooey or smelly. It not all that hard or time consuming either.

The results are certainly worth it in my experience.

[randomparent]

Orange peels taint the recycling stream, meaning that it's likely the load will be rejected and end up in the landfill.

[engineman]

Put the orange peels in the sink disposal, it will help clean it.

[Ceece]

Orange peels or any other food stuff isn't "recyclable" the way we do things. It's about paper, glass and plastics where I'm from. For cans and plastics I got to a buyback center for $ and they don't want to even see stray paper mixed in which confuses me since many of the plastic bottles have a paper wrap on them.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by HappyRider

We like most other families have a recycling can and a trash can inside the house. The other day I was thinking what is the harm of tossing some orange peels or other perfectly harmless "trash" in the recyling bin? Would it hasten the end of the world you think?

No, but it might hasten the end of curbside recycling. Orange peels are not recyclable, but I'm sure you already knew that.

Originally Posted by HappyRider

Gooey, smelly compost bins crawling with worms is where I draw the line. The earth doesn't need that much help.

If your compost is gooey and smelly, you're doing it wrong.