News Update
Industry report provides best practices for composting waste
Staff report
Enviro-Net
Composting all organic waste could eliminate nearly one-third of all waste materials sent to landfills and trash incinerators across the U.S.
Composting in America, a new report released by U.S. PIRG Education Fund, Environment America Research and Policy Center and Frontier Group, outlines best practices for composting programs that are critical for mitigating the negative impact of waste on the climate and public health.
Each year, America landfills and incinerates enough organic material to fill a line of 18-wheelers stretching from New York to Los Angeles 10 times over, the report explained.
All of that trash could instead be turned into valuable compost, helping reduce carbon from the atmosphere, returning nutrients to the soil and replacing toxic chemical fertilizers.
Only 326 towns and cities out of more than 19,000 nationwide offer curbside food waste collection. As a result, most Americans have no option but to throw their food remnants into the trash. However, the number of communities offering composting programs has increased by 65 percent in the past five years, the report noted.
To make composting programs successful, cities and towns should make them more convenient and affordable, institute a commercial composting requirement and support local markets, noted the report.