Alan Bell wrote:
We share a house with a large backyard. One corner of the backyard has a
concrete patio with two benches. One of us is concerned with plants,
gardening, conservation and recycling. That person ate an orange and
scattered nine pieces of the peel in a flower bed next to the patio. His
rationale was that the peels were biodegradable. The other of us is
concerned with rules, order and appearance. That person felt the orange
peels should have been placed in a trash can. His rationale is that the
peels are ugly.

Orange peels randomly scattered around *are* ugly. They
look like someone threw trash in your flowers, unless your
flowers form some kind of tight ground cover and the peels
would be underneath them, or the peels are in very tiny
pieces and therefore mix in well with mulching, or are in
some other way made to look not like trash.

The peels don't have to be placed in a trash can, though --
the peels won't biodegrade in much of a useful fashion just
scattered around on the dirt. If he starts a compost pile,
though, he could toss the peels on there and do some good.
Or he could dig a little hole and bury the peels, letting
them slowly biodegrade out of sight.

As to which is more polite, which I assume is why you asked
AFMM, well, the polite thing to do is for both of you to
discuss how you want to handle biodegradable trash and come
up with a plan that works well for both of you. I hope
some of my suggestions above are of use to you in that
discussion.

Connie-Lynne



--
"The sky is blue because Martians puke sapphires.
I heard John Glen say this on Fresh Air."
-- N. Jill Marsh