Our curbside composting customers are great, and we truly appreciate every one of them. They take the time to keep biodegradable waste out of the garbage, and put it out in our 5-gallon buckets for curbside pickup (and get free compost back).
Every composter finds a few renegade items that get past the screening process, and it's interesting that companies selling "organic" items in the grocery store often use more plastic packaging and stickers than needed to promote their brands. I'm honestly not sure what came individually wrapped in the plastic above, but we found it when building one of our hot compost piles.
I get why individually sold fruits or vegetables (avocados, for example) each have a sticker, so they can be rung up easily at the register.
What I don't get is why every banana in a bunch has to have it's own sticker. Most people buy them by the bunch, and for those who don't, you can always look up the produce item on the screen, even at the self-checkout counters.
We appreciate our customers keeping an eye out for these contaminants, and we'll continue to backstop them by doing our own review each time we empty a bucket into a new compost pile.