composting

Learning about what happens to organic waste sent to landfills was eye-opening for me. Composting is one strategy we can implement to combat some of the harmful effects. I pay $20/month for a local Chicago composting service to pick up my scraps/drop off a new bucket once a month. Or you can set up your own system for your yard.

Snippet of info below, but highly recommend reading the full linked Composting 101 article (and donating to NRDC!).

“Typically when organic matter decomposes, it undergoes aerobic decomposition, meaning that it’s broken down by microorganisms that require oxygen. When compostable waste goes to a landfill, it gets buried under massive amounts of other trash, cutting off a regular supply of oxygen for the decomposers. The waste then ends up undergoing anaerobic decomposition, being broken down by organisms that can live without free-flowing oxygen. During anaerobic decomposition, biogas is created as a by-product. This biogas is roughly 50 percent methane and 50 percent carbon dioxide, both of which are potent greenhouse gases, with methane being 28 to 36 times more effective than CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphereover a century. Although most modern landfills have methane capture systems, these do not capture all of the gas; according to the EPA, landfills are the third-largest source of human-generated methane emissions in the United States. Because our solid waste infrastructure was designed around landfilling, only about 6 percent of food waste gets composted.”