As is commonly thought, food that has been thrown away doesn't just decompose naturally. But food is a natural, organic matter, so how could that be? Well, landfills are devoid of the proper air and light that food waste needs to break down, so instead the food quickly rots and releases methane gas into the air, which goes into the atmosphere and helps to pollute our earth. Methane gas is one of the most potent greenhouse gases and landfills contribute 20% of methane emissions (primarily because of this food waste)! The rotting food also produces another toxic chemical that seeps into ground water. According to the EPA, the US generates more than 34 million tons of food waste annually, and only a staggering 3 percent of that is recovered or composted! Today, food waste has become the number 1 component of municipal solid waste in landfills! This has huge impacts for our environment, our health, and our economy. Read about it in the link above.
So what can you do? Well, if you have a garden you can use your nutrient rich food scraps for fertilizing your plants organically, by turning it into compost. You can even get a tiny in-home compost bin such as this one. But if you are city dwellers like us and don't have the space for a garden of your own, you can still help gardeners and farmers turn your food waste into compost. It's so simple, how could you not do it! All we do is store a brown paper bag in the freezer and add the food scraps to it. It usually takes us about a week to fill it up. When it's good and full we simply take the bag to the farmer's market (where we are lucky to have access to a compost stand, but most likely any farmer will be willing to take free food to turn into compost!), or on non-farmer's market days, to Whole Foods (they also have a compost bin). You also should even be able to find a neighbor or a local urban garden who would willingly take your food bag, just search online.
Our food scraps filled bag in the freezer.
But what about using a garbage disposal? Well, this may be better than throwing the food into the trash (and thus the landfill), but it uses a huge amount of energy and most likely water (if you are running the tap while you dispose). Composting is your best bet!
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