Written by West
The idea of using food waste to encourage plant growth is hardly a new one, people have been composting for years, but a recent study posted in Restoration Ecology shows the kind of dramatic results that bringing this idea to a bigger scale can create. Back in the 1990s ecologists Daniel Janzen and Winne Hallwachs worked at the Area de Conservación Guanacaste, a world heritage site and national park in Costa Rica. As part of an experiment, they made an agreement with orange juice manufacturer Del Oro that the company could dump their orange waste on an area of degraded land in the national park if Del Oro would donate some of their own land to the national park. A deal was struck, and after removing the oils and acids from the orange waste it was dumped in the area.
Approximately 12,000 metric tons of peel and pulp were left on the land until the arrangement was brought to an abrupt halt after another fruit company got involved and argued in court that Del Oro had defiled a national park. The court agreed with the rival company, and the land and orange waste were left alone.
No seeds or seedlings were planted at the site before it was covered in the orange waste, though the waste was predicted to remove some grasses that would compete with seedlings for nutrients.
16 years later researchers returned to the site, though they had some trouble finding it. Study author Timothy Treuer talked about his experience: “It took me two trips to the site to actually figure out where it was. It didn’t help that the six-foot-long sign with bright yellow lettering marking the site was so overgrown with vines that we literally didn’t find it until years later, after dozens and dozens of site visits.”
The research team measured tree growth and soil content at the site, comparing it to an empty pasture that sat across the road. The difference between the two areas was massive. The orange peel area had richer soils and a wider range of healthier trees.
Treuer described one of the fig trees on site as "So large it would have taken three people to wrap their arms all the way around it.
You can read their study on the Princeton website [here]
Many large companies cause problems to the local and global environments, but if one experiment with a juice company and a national park can bear such rewarding fruit, imagine what could be achieved if more companies decided to work with the environmental community.
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1 Comment
SARAT BABU MANCHI
22/4/2022 03:07:48 pm
I love plants & animals so much! Inhuman people increase their population so much but decrease Nature so much all over the world!
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