Key Takeaways Del Oro dumped 12,000 tons of orange peels in 1997, turning barren land into forest. Timothy Treuer found tree biomass jumped 176% by 2013, showing waste can restore ecosystems. Costa Rica’s Supreme Court fight shows future projects need strict safeguards and legal approval. In 1997, ecologists Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs struck a deal with juice maker Del Oro to dump 12,000 tonnes of orange peels on worn-out land in Costa Rica’s Guanacaste Conservation Area. What looked like sloppy waste disposal quickly turned into a courtroom brawl after rival company TicoFruit pushed the fight to Costa Rica’s Supreme …


