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iaintthewalrus t1_ixuvm3w wrote

Composting is good but I don’t think food scraps are the problem in anyway. It’s all the non biodegradable, single use items that we need to cut down on because they’re not recyclable like we thought.

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urbantravelsPHL t1_ixvufo9 wrote

Organic waste going into landfills is a huge problem because it has a climate impact.

If your banana peels decompose in a compost heap, they give off carbon dioxide, which balanced by the carbon dioxide absorbed by the plant to photosynthesize and make the banana in the first place.

If your banana peels decompose in the sealed environment of a landfill, they will decompose via a different microbial process, called anaerobic decomposition (meaning no oxygen). This is a slower process and it it chemically different - it produces methane, which is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Landfills have to vent the methane that's produced by this decomposition or else they get a bit splody.

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inthegarden5 t1_ixv15gw wrote

Food waste is the largest single component of household trash and we throw out about 30% of the food we buy (some is scrap like cores and peels but some is food we let go bad or just waste). Buried in a landfill it decomposes without oxygen so it produces methane as a byproduct. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas.

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karenmcgrane t1_ixwptuj wrote

The weight and volume of the trash in trucks and landfills matters a lot. More trucks on the road, more space devoted to landfill.

Diverting organic waste to compost provides fertilizer for plants. I use Circle Compost and they pick up with bike trailers.

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