If you’re like my younger son, you go through bananas faster than a primate. He’s not a picky eater by any means, but there are certain things that he absolutely loves. Bananas are one of them.
While bananas make for a quick and easy snack, they also produce a lot of waste with the leftover, inedible banana peels. While most probably throw their peels right in the trash bin, do we have any other options? Composting is one excellent option, but not all of us compost our food scraps.
In this article, let’s see whether or not it’s safe to put banana peels in your garbage disposal as a quick and easy way to dispose of them.
Can Banana Peels Go in the Garbage Disposal?
While some heavier-duty models might be able to handle it, it is not recommended that you put banana peels down your garbage disposal. Banana peels are very fibrous, which puts a lot of strain on your disposal.
There are a couple of ways that banana peels can cause issues for you if you decide to put them down your garbage disposal. The first is that they might get stuck in the disposal. Due to the fiber content of banana peels, they can be hard to break down in your disposal, and you run the risk of getting fiber strands wrapped around your blades.
The other way that banana peels can be problematic is by getting jammed in your drain pipes. Again, due to their high fiber content, banana peels can potentially make it through your garbage disposal without being broken down quite enough to easily traverse your pipes.
As a result, they can get stuck, leading to a slow drain or even a clog.
How Should You Dispose of Banana Peels?
1 – Compost It
Banana peels are a great item to add to your compost pile. They are considered a green material (rich in nitrogen), which can be mixed with your carbon-rich, brown materials.
Composting is a great way to turn your food waste into something that can later be used to benefit the plants in your garden.
2 – Feed It to Animals
While banana peels aren’t the ideal treat for humans, plenty of wildlife will be more than happy to eat them as a snack. After washing them to remove any pesticide residue, simply grind up your peels and put them out for the animals in your area.
3 – Keep Aphids Out of Your Garden
Aphids are a common pest for gardeners, but a simple trick that’s known to keep them away is to place small pieces of a banana peel just under the surface of the soil. Banana peels can also provide some nutrition for your plants, so you’re effectively killing two birds with one stone.
4 – Tenderize Your Meat
Yet another common use for banana peels is to tenderize your meat. Simply throw a banana peel in the pan with your meat to keep it from drying out too much while it cooks.
5 – Toss It in the Trash Bin
If none of the ideas above work for you, you can always do what most people do, which is throw their peels directly in their trash bin. If you’re in an area with a lot of bugs, you might want to store your peels in the freezer until trash day.
However, if you’re in the middle of winter, and you live in a cooler area like we do, you won’t have to worry too much about that.
This list isn’t all inclusive by any means. There are plenty of other potential uses for banana peels, like shining your shoes or whitening your teeth. A quick online search will pull up a nice list of some of these more unconventional uses, if you’re interested.
Final Thoughts
Although it seems like it would be easy to throw your banana peels into the garbage disposal to quickly get rid of them, don’t be tempted. By doing so, you run the risk of either gumming up the disposal or clogging your drain pipes.
Thankfully, we have plenty of other options to choose from, so keep eating those bananas and choose a safer, alternative method for disposal.
I have a bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems and over 10 years of experience working in IT. As a homeowner, I love working on projects around the house, and as a father, I love investigating various ways to keep my family safe (whether or not this involves tech). I’ve also played guitar for almost 20 years and love writing music, although it’s hard to find the time these days.