They Threw 12,000 Tons Of Orange Peels In A Forest. 16 Years Later They Returned to See The Results…

Owned and ran bistro. On a daily basis, the bistro went through about 20kg of coffee beans. Also owned a farm from where most of the produce used in the bistro came. At end of each day the coffee grinds, peelings, eggshells would be composted. Surprisingly, the coffee grinds broke up the clay soil and made soil easier to till. Combined with peelings eggshells, the farmland would yield a respectable harvest. Interestingly, the farm and bistro sustained each other. The bistro raised the dollar value of the crop. While, the crop raised the bistro’s profit margin by at least 40%. Interestingly the restaurant inspectors would only eat at my bistro.

"Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences and stupid people already have all answers"

Back in the 1970s the ranchers in Florida used to get the orange peels and pulp to put on their pastures to improve not only the food supply for cattle but also to increase nutrients in the soil that would allow for better grass to grow.

I hope those researchers, ecologists and the orange company get back the rights to do the same again.

During the orange peel section, you mentioned using it for fuel. In the mid 1970's, I wrote a term paper (my BS) to convert citrus processing wastes into ethanol. I found it had an 18 month pay back on gross margin. (Ethanol is not only a fuel, it is also an industrial chemical, such as used in cosmetics.) Less than 10 years later, I read that one of these citrus processing plants was being built in Florida. My BS and MS are in Agricultural Engineering.

That whole orange story just goes to shows how giving back to the earth will go a long way

Finally, a good/positive story about something in a rainforest!

For the past few years I'm into wood chipping techniques and I would recommend to all interested to watch documentary 'Back to Eden' about this topic. Personally, I managed to take few bags from local tree management services full of chipped branches and make a really good top soil to grow fruits in my backyard as it was decomposing for 2-3 years. Also in my vacant village house where I have a plum orchid, I used to cut soooo many branches and shrubs as I have to mow and clear area so it won't become jungle around the house, I got nothing as it all became ashes after I would burn it out. But in 2022. I managed to buy a nice Bosch wood chipper and now I chip all the branches and scrubs, chop leaves as well and dump it all around each tree or where I want to create fertile soil. And I can confirm that when you dump a lot in one place you will kill all the grasses and weeds underneath but it keeps moisture, breaks down gradually and creates black, nutrient rich soil. From that soil you can grow anything and all the weeds that try to sprout, you just need to pull them out gently with the full roots. Also I don't need to water my plants during hot summers here if the cover of chipped wood is 3cm or more! And when I remove the wood chips, I can feel soft and moist black soil forming full of different bugs, worms and even fungi... It is 100% healthy for all beings there.

Those conservationists did what many of our great grandparents did to raise hearty gardens 100 years ago. 🙏❤️🥰

Man if I was the company that filled the lawsuit, I would have spent that money trying to figure out how to get in on a deal like that instead of taking it to court

My parents were gardening organically beginning in the 50's, my siblings and I have done it since. Makes sense to use food scraps, manure, tree leaves and grasses to make a good compost. It's the plant worlds answer on giving it's offspring the nutrients needed to survive.

"That meant that this previously barren patch of land, a healthy vibrant rainforest had been regrown" In just 16 years! One would think that process would take decades, if not longer

One key factor in the orange peel story is it they also left the land alone. We discovered during covid that if you just leave areas of the ocean alone they will also rapidly recover. Human land use prevents the land from recovering.

A few thoughts on some of the pointed "Downsides". Attracting flies to the decomposing pulp from Coffee or Oranges is not a bad thing. It may be inconvenient for people who may live nearby, but this type of land recovery to a natural state is not usually done in highly populated areas. That said there is a significant advantage to having flies and insect activity from the composting of the pulp as this draws in predators, specifically birds who will deposit their own fertilizer which will contain seeds to help jump start the diversity of the flora. It was also mentioned that the rich nutrients could leach into waterways causing algae blooms. If there was a combination of dry carbon (browns in composting terms) with the wets/fuel (Nitrogen heavy pulp/peels) it would instead bind up these nutrients, help contain the smell of decomposition, and provide an even richer end product compost with a lot more volume, as less of the compost would be "gassed off" during the process, and more nutrients and overall volume retained.

Its amazing how nature can grow back so fast. The clear cut Redwood forest areas that were clear cut in the Santa Cruz mountains in CA, almost 100 years ago had grown back in less than 20 years and now there is no trace of where the forest was cut.

Story dragged out waaay too slowly. :-(

Woah nice vid. Those conservationists outplayed everybody, even in the most dire of circumstances. They got far with it and the results speak for themselves. The fact that they got the company to do all the cleaning and specific dumping in marked areas of a mass waste material was such a win for everything concerned.

Greed hurts everyone and everything. Shame on that company for stopping the progress that the land needed.

The coffee story reminded me of a former colleague of mine! When I worked in the project management section of "Deutsche Bahn" (german railway), the bureaus had a huuuuge rate in the consumption of coffee! A colleague had bought a former train station building with a small plot of land around it! The land surrounding it was, llet´s say, pretty normally overgrown. When he started to work in his garden, he began to collect all the coffee waste (i.e. the ground coffee with its filters) and put it on his lands/his plants. After a short time he had turned the more or less barren land into a little paradise which became better every year. Soon it was known as a colorful green oasis!

20 years ago I used to buy orange peel extract as an adhesive remover. Works great and doesn’t hurt the substrate. It was a USA company, trying to get rid of orange peels from Florida/California.