SWRC Blog: The Step Before Composting

So how guilty am I going to make everybody by talking about food waste right after Thanksgiving? Those of us with composting options can be feel virtuous because our excess food didn’t go to landfill (yay, us!).

So, yes, compost is WAY better than landfilling. If you toss out spoiled leftovers, they create methane in the landfill and contribute to climate change. But (you just knew there would be a but, didn’t you?) a WAY BETTER option is to not fill the compost with edible food either. Putting them in the compost avoids the methane but it still wastes all the energy and inputs that went into the making of that food – including your own.

This is the first R – reduce. It is the most important, most effective strategy; that of not creating the waste to begin with. For Thanksgiving, and any other day, this means some planning, some willingness to eat leftovers and likely some freezing (and then remembering to thaw and eat later).

From a municipal perspective, we often talk about backyard composting as being a reduction method. If residents handle their own organic waste (correctly), not only do those materials not end up in landfill, they don’t require collection, transporting, or processing.

While it is true that backyard composting saves municipal resources, it’s also true that food waste prevention saves even more. Within a community, food waste comes from many sources – processors, grocery stores, hotels and restaurants, and, yes, households. If a big portion of the edible food waste were prevented (reduced), not only would the landfill benefit, but a community could have a smaller organics management facility. Resource savings all around.

So, in addition to figuring out how to divert organics from landfill, if communities also put some energy into reducing those organics, we would all benefit. Diverting edible food to those in need could also increase food security, another plus.

Effective municipal organics strategies should include programs aimed at reducing food and yard waste. Giving residents specific strategies to minimize food spoilage and to buy food more thoughtfully could be combined with yard waste reduction programs like grasscycling and using leaves as mulch. Also consider programs aimed at reducing food waste in the rest of the supply chain, maybe by streamlining purchasing and redistributing food. There are many possibilities.

Let’s take that first R out for a spin.