--- title: Projecting the Power of Banana Waste description: Better living through banana power, the divide over LGBT rights at the UN and more. canonical: https://time.com/4341682/power-banana-waste/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-19T16:01:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:59.040Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Projecting the Power of Banana Waste og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4341682/power-banana-waste/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Projecting the Power of Banana Waste twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Projecting the Power of Banana Waste by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 19, 2016 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 19, 2016 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Here’s how waste from one of the world’s favorite fruits could power growth.**](http://www.upm.es/internacional/UPM/UPM%5FChannel/News/911dae46958c4510VgnVCM10000009c7648aRCRD) By Universidad Politécnica de Madrid **2\.** [**The next battleground for LGBT rights: the United Nations.**](http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2016/05/un-and-gay-rights) By the Economist **3\.** [**Is marriage the best defense against alcoholism?**](http://news.vcu.edu/article/VCU%5FSwedish%5Fstudy%5Ffinds%5Fmarriage%5Fprotects%5Fagainst%5Frisk%5Ffor%5Fdeveloping) By Anne Dreyfuss at Virginia Commonwealth University **4\.** [**Don’t worry about robots. Ex-cons can probably do a better job than you.**](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-05/ex-cons-may-outperform-you-in-the-workplace) By Jordan Yadoo at Bloomberg Benchmark **5\.** [**There’s no such thing as a woman’s ‘biological clock.’**](http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/10/foul-reign-of-the-biological-clock) By Moira Weigel in the Guardian  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4341682/power-banana-waste/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4341682/power-banana-waste/"},"headline":"Projecting the Power of Banana Waste","datePublished":"2016-05-19T16:01:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:59.040Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4341682/power-banana-waste/","keywords":["Innovation","women","Jobs","LGBT","United Nations","alcoholism"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4341682/power-banana-waste/","name":"Projecting the Power of Banana Waste"}}]}] ```