There they are again \u2014 in the compost caddy, littered through the backyard pile, stuck in the sifter, peeping out of the garden beds \u2014 the eternal bane of many home gardeners: the small, ubiquitous, and remarkably indestructible produce sticker. <\/p>\n

\u201cI painstakingly remove every produce sticker from every piece of fruit and veg that enters our home,\u201d says James Hohman, a professor at the University of Connecticut. But his compost pile lives on top of a compost pile used by the previous owners of his house. When Hohman\u2019s family first moved in, he sifted the pile, removing \u201cprobably hundreds of stickers.\u201d But more stickers kept showing up for years \u2014 in the pile and in the garden beds. <\/p>\n

Joshua Simpson, who lives in Washington, knows his pain. \u201cI have composted blue jeans well before those dumb stickers have gone away,\u201d he says. His family also feeds their food scraps to their chickens, resulting in produce stickers \u201call over the yard.\u201d <\/p>\n