The EPA says that methane is some 28 times more potent<\/a> than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n \u201cIf food waste were its own country, then it would be the third largest greenhouse gas-emitter in the world,\u201d Jaenicke said.<\/p>\n In addition to the amount of food that consumers throw out, another significant contributor to the country\u2019s food waste problem happens at the production level.<\/p>\n Sometimes that is due to Americans\u2019 pickiness when it comes to cosmetic standards for produce<\/a>, but it also happens as a result of environmental factors that might leave crops damaged or destroyed.<\/p>\n A recent report from the American Farm Bureau Federation<\/a> on Thanksgiving prices noted that produce items like sweet potatoes were up 37%, which the lobbying group attributed in part to hurricane damage to North Carolina\u2019s farms.<\/p>\n The effect is a vicious cycle: As wasted food goes into landfills and breaks down into powerful methane gas, it contributes to the kind of adverse weather events known to create additional waste at the production level.<\/p>\n One way to address the problem of wasted food winding up in landfills is to instead reroute the product to be composted.<\/p>\n That is what New York City hopes to do with its newly expanded Staten Island Compost Facility.<\/p>\n There, massive heaps of food waste are churned into usable compost that residents can collect for free and businesses for a fee.<\/p>\n \u201cCompost is awesome,\u201d said NYC Deputy Commissioner of Solid Waste Management Jennifer McDonnell.<\/p>\n \u201cIt works really well. We make it here in New York City. We can use it here in New York City. So it\u2019s an example of the circular economy, and we need all of that material coming in on the front end to make our products.\u201d<\/p>\n Composting is a natural recycling process that relies on microorganisms to feed on organic materials \u2014 like food scraps \u2014 and convert it into plant fertilizer.<\/p>\n The Staten Island compost facility sits atop a retired landfill dominated by scores of seagulls taking advantage of the steam billowing out of the masses of product in various stages of compost.<\/p>\n McDonnell said that landfills like the one formerly operated at the Staten Island facility are part of why America deals so poorly with its food waste.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s limited capacity,\u201d she said of landfills.<\/p>\n \u201cThe coolest thing about a facility like this is you never use up its capacity. It\u2019s always taking in new stuff and producing products. It\u2019s a manufacturing facility. It\u2019s not an end-of-the road facility.\u201d<\/p>\n New York is one of a handful of cities<\/a> looking to address the problem of solid waste rotting away in landfills through a municipal composting program.<\/p>\n Its city council last year mandated residents begin separating their food and lawn waste from inorganic trash \u2014 a historic move by the nation\u2019s most populous city.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s groundbreaking. I think we have a lot of potential over time to continue growing,\u201d McDonnell said.<\/p>\n While participation has not yet reached 10%, the city has said it would begin issuing fines for noncompliance in an effort to boost resident engagement.<\/p>\n But there are structural challenges to getting these types of programs off the ground. First, there\u2019s infrastructure. It\u2019s expensive to find and manage the facilities needed to compost on a massive scale.<\/p>\n McDonnell says another issue is education and participation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve studied other jurisdictions, other municipalities, and usually when they start a program like this, it takes about ten years to mature to get to a participation rate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n To help, the city is constantly providing guidance about the proper way to dispose of food scraps and other organic waste, including the city\u2019s Trash Academy<\/a>, which bills itself as \u201cthe crash course for a sustainable city.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, even if not every New Yorker buys in, McDonnell said, modest increases in proper waste practices could have big implications for the amount of food that winds up in a landfill.<\/p>\n \u201cIn our culture, where we produce so much waste from just existing, we have to be thoughtful about how to have a long term sustainable approach to properly managing all those things,\u201d McDonnell said.<\/p>\n \u201cFood waste and yard waste make up about 30-35% of all the waste generated in a typical New York City household. So if you carve off that third and recover, it can make a big dent.\u201d<\/p>\nCompost is key<\/h2>\n
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Challenges of composting on a massive scale<\/h2>\n
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