Well over a decade ago, two ecologists came up with an out of the box idea: allow an orange juice company to dispose of its orange peels and pulp in a "largely deforested area nearby" in exchange for "donating a portion of unspoiled, forested land to...a nature preserve in the...northwest [of Costa Rica]". Within the course of a year, "over 12,000 metric tons of sticky, mealy, orange compost [were poured] onto the worn-out plot". Last year, one of the ecologists sent a graduate student to find the plot and (after multiple struggles to find the area) came across quite an astonishing result. The area that was dumped with "orange peel deposit" 20 years prior, was so "thick with vegetation" that it was hard to believe.
It took over a combined 65 trips for the ecologist and graduate student to find the original sign marking the land, which was overgrown with vines. This in itself goes to show the difference that could be made "in many parts of the world [where] rates of deforestation are increasing dramatically" just by incorporating nutrient-rich waste (over half of all produce in the United States is sent to a landfill).