While you can choose to compost biodegradable items, it's even better to turn them into something edible or useful around the house. One of the most versatile items are banana peels, which can be fried, cooked in other ways, or incorporated into baked goods like cake for a nutritional and textural upgrade.

Not only is adding banana peels an eco-friendly win for your cake, but it can increase the nutritional benefits, add flavor, and improve texture. The fibrous banana peels possess tons of nutrients like potassium, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium, and iron, giving your cake some nutrition to go with the indulgence.

If you love banana cake or bread, incorporating the peels can add an extra dose of banana flavor and make the cake extra moist, since the peels have a high water content. To add them to a cake, you can either soften the peels by simmering them and then puréeing them, or freeze them in advance, which also softens them.