The world consumes over 10 billion bananas a year which creates an awful lot of banana peels. A tiny fraction will be used for the age old practical joke, with the rest clogging up our landfill sites. The next time you finish a banana, try recycling the peel in one of these creative ways:
1. REMOVE ANNOYING SPLINTERS
The amount of time most people spend cutting, digging and scraping the skin around a splinter causes more frustration than the pain and irritation of the splinter itself. Incredibly, the enzymes on the inside of the banana peel work wonders on human skin, opening the pores and making it smoother.
Simply tape or hold a section of fresh banana peel over the affected area for a couple of minutes and you should find that when you apply pressure behind the splinter, it just pops straight out without a pair of tweezers in sight. Make sure that your banana skin is fresh (used within the last few hours) as once the inside of the peel is open to fresh air, the enzymes quickly start to lose their effectiveness. The best way to test is to run your finger up the inside of the peel. If it feels wet, you're good to go.
2. SOOTHE AND REDUCE ACNE
Acne can become so severe that it can ruin a person's self confidence in their body image and make it hard for them to interact with others. For the large majority of teenagers, the onset of puberty makes dealing with acne a daily problem and one that can quickly become expensive when you start buying chemical treatments.
Fortunately, mother nature has provided a natural soothing balm in the banana skin and again it's the enzymes on the inside of the skin that helps to open the pores in the skin. Tight pores combined with an increase in skin oil production is what leads to blackheads and acne in the first place, so if your pores are open, the oil can be released easily. You'll need to keep your skin really clean during your banana peel regimen as having open pores also allows dirt in which can cause a different set of skin problems.3. FERTILISE YOUR GARDEN
There is an age old myth that you should put bananas in your compost bin as they don't biodegrade quick enough to be usable during planting season. Whilst the rise in demand for the "perfect" yellow banana has caused more plantations to cover their fruit in preservatives and colourings, the Fairtrade movement has reduced this chemical overload, giving you the freedom to recycle your banana peels into your garden.
Once they're in the compost bin or soil, the naturally high levels of potassium and phosphorus found in the skin are excellent biodegrading agents for other natural items. You only have to look at the other fruit in the fruit bowl when you leave them next to a banana for too long to see how banana skins speed up the metabolic process. You can also skip the compost bin altogether and put chopped up bits of banana peel directly into the soil.4. MAKE YOUR TEETH SPARKLE
Billions gets spent each year across the globe on teeth whitening products and operations as everyone goes in search of that Hollywood smile. You can, of course, keep your teeth whiter through a process of regular cleaning with whitening toothpaste and avoiding food and drink that stain such as coffee and red wine. However, you can save time, money and chemicals by using the inside of your banana peels to brighten up your smile.
A quick note should be made that using a banana peel is and never will be a substitute for brushing them with toothpaste, but rubbing the inside of the skin on the surface of your teeth before brushing them will give you whiter enamel in just two weeks. Only use the peel once (you could put it in the compost bin when you're done) as any harmful plaque will stay on it, nullifying the effect of the peel.5. ROASTING YOUR CHICKEN
Everyone has their own "special" recipe when it comes to roasting a chicken. Some people cook it upside down, some sit it up on top of a Coke can whilst others slather it in oil and herbs. All of these efforts are to make the meat moist and juicy once it's done in the oven, a trick that's hard to do when you're cooking meat at high temperatures.
Many people are surprised to find that placing banana peels, inside face down onto the chicken, makes some of the most succulent meat that you'll ever taste. It acts in the same way as tin foil does, absorbing the harsh heat of the oven and transferring slowly through the skin to the meat below. Surprisingly, the flavour of the banana doesn't get transferred to the meat as the enzymes which cause the banana to taste like it does get killed off by the high temperature of the oven.6. MAKE SHOES SHINE
Bright shining shoes are often a measure of success in business, and most people have a range of leather care products that they'll use over the weekend to get their shoes ready for the grind of Monday morning. Most shoe shining products simply mask the visible signs of wear and tear that comes with wearing the same shoes day in day out around the office.
However, the enzymes on the inside of a banana peel actually go some way to repair the fabric of the shoes from the inside. They react with the lower layers, filling in the gaps that make your shoes look scruffy which in turn means you can turn the top layer into a shiny sheen. For this operation, use banana peels that are around a day old, as if the skin is too slick on the inside, you'll end up with slimy shoes that have a faint whiff of banana.7. SPRUCE UP YOUR LEATHER COUCH
Leather couches are fantastic for families with younger children as they are easy to wipe clean from all sorts of messes. However, their naturally resistant outer layers can become dull very quickly, especially if you have to clean them regularly. The cleaning process typically uses harsh chemicals to remove stains which in turn damages the outer layers of naturally made leather.
In the same way that a banana skin can help to shine your shoes, it can also be used to make your couch look five years younger. Simply rubbing the outside of the skin over the affected areas once a day will give you visible results in a week or so. The kids will love the idea of using a banana in this way, so give it to them as one of their household chores. You'll still need to follow it up with a buffing cloth to get the best shine.8. HEAL BRUISES FASTER
Bruises are one of the very few areas that modern medicine have left well alone in terms of treatment. In part this is due to their non-fatal nature and the fact that the body has its own healing mechanisms that take care of the problem in a few days. There are also plenty of effective herbal remedies, such as arnica, which do a better job than any pill.
For larger bruises, however, regular application of the outside of an old banana peel will speed up the healing process. Any bruises larger than a saucer will heal from the outside in, meaning the centre will take a few weeks to recover. The enzymes in the banana peel speed up the skin's recovery process by boosting the metabolism of your skin cells that aren't receiving enough blood as they're being blocked by the edge of the bruise. Just be sure to leave the banana skin on for at least 10 minutes twice a day.9. HAIR CONDITIONER
A common myth is that mixing banana peel, honey and single cream together will make a cheaper and natural alternative to regular hair conditioner. If you haven't tried this, don't. All that you'll end up with is hair that is sticky, greasy and that smells like bananas until your next shower. However, you get much better results by blending half a banana skin with the contents of a normal hair conditioner bottle.
The chemicals and amino acids present in most conditioners react with the potassium in the banana skin to produce a thinner product that works on your hair much faster than just the conditioner by itself. A banana peel that has had time to darken is best for this as the drying process will make it easier to blend up. Fresh banana peels are still very fibrous and can compromise the texture and effectiveness of your new conditioner.10. ATTRACT BUTTERFLIES TO YOUR GARDEN
The final way to get a second life from a banana peel is to use their natural fragrance to attract more insects and butterflies to your garden. The sugars in the banana skin create a heady aroma and send out the message that your garden will be a fruitful source of pollen and food for flying creatures. For this reason, you should hang the skins around the borders of your garden to spread the scent as far as possible.
Of course, banana skins degrade and become unsightly after around a week, shorter if they were already on the turn when you ate them, so you should keep a ready supply to switch out. In terms of the aesthetics of your garden, you can either have them on proud display as a colour boost or hide them behind sheds, benches and long leaf plants so you can focus on the colourful butterflies coming in.
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