The Effects of Composting on the Environment

With the seemingly unstoppable growth of the world’s population and a projected global population of nine billion by 2050, the matter of whether or not there will be enough food to support the world’s populace is brought into question (Parfitt, et al., 2010). However, amid the concern for an adequate food supply, there is an immense amount of food waste produced by the world, including the United States. In fact, “according to the Natural Resources Defense Council as much as 40 percent of all food produced in the United States never gets eaten and typically ends up in the landfills or goes unharvested in the field “(King, 2015).

There is enough food waste in America to fill up 730 football stadiums. Yet, ironically there were almost 50 million people who live in households that are food-insecure in 2013. Thus, it is critically important to help reduce (or at the very least reevaluate) the amount of food that is wasted so it can be used to help those who can’t always afford it, or, help to reduce the impact of methane released by landfills, or, help to use less resources gone into making the produce.

Food waste is an environmental, economic, and ethical problem that can lead to less calorie intake and unnecessary damage of our assets. Individual behavior can redesign food waste at home and lead to bigger changes in the ecosystem. The problem is Americans throw out more food than glass, paper, and plastic. Also about 25% of food grown, processed, and transported in the US will never be consumed. When food is disposed in a landfill it rots and becomes a significant source of methane— a potent greenhouse gas with 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.

According to some experts and their investigations such as McCabe (2016), there are some possible and effective alternatives or solutions to this current problem. In terms of reducing the environmental impact, a ‘circular economy’ should be applied, transforming food remains and garbage into biofuel, bioenergy, fertiliser or biogas, using an anaerobic digestion technology called ‘co-digestion’, as well as thermal recovery

Reducing CO2 emissions is an important part of a sustainable community, but changes in human behaviors are necessary to ensure these goals are met. An estimated 9.3 acres of farmland are lost every day in and around Austin. As of 2014 less than 1% of the food consumed in the region is produced locally, and of the food imported an estimated 97 thousand tons enters the landfill. This has a value of nearly $200 million. A great method for reducing food waste is composting, in the region approximately 1,837 tons, or 1.9% of the total waste, is being turned back into the soil. This is a part of Austin’s “field to fork” food system that addresses the growth, distribution, consumption, and recovery of food. Locally growing all food consumed in the region not only reduces transportation

An educational campaign should be launched to inform and encourage new behaviors. All consumers should be shown the benefit of composting versus traditional disposal methods. Once consumers have been properly educated, encouraging participation is key. This would include providing a composting method for waste to be properly composted. The food recycling program would provide the means for all associates to begin composting donations rather than disposing via trash receptacles. Food compost bins should be provided in any food service industry to allow for proper disposal of waste. Companies should locate composting facilities and begin distributing food waste to said facilities rather than traditional trash disposal services. If possible and practical, companies should work to create their own composting stations.

“Globally, we throw out about 1.3 billion tons of food a year, or a third of all the food that we grow” (Sengupta). In the United States 33% is from agriculture, 11% from postharvest, 10% from processing, 8% from retail, and 39% from consumption. Consumers are the majority of our waste, but there's not a lot of ways to prevent this.

Imagine you lived during the time period where poor farming techniques were created, and dust was being deposited or dropped into your lungs, forcing you to walk slowly down the steps of death. The phenomenon, the Dust Bowl, took place in the United States during the years around the 1930’s. It was an event that occurred in the United States, where the area it was taken place did not have moist soil, healthy crops, and a considerable amount of water. During this time, the soil was poor, meaning there was a small amount of nutrients in it. From this, it caused the seeds being planted to wilt, and die.. Compost helps the nutrients and moisture to stay within the soil, in order to allow the plants to not wither from being over watered or the lack of this liquid.

All over America, there is a growing problem, and that problem is the growing piles of food that end up in our nation 's landfills. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that in 2010 alone, there was an average of “133 billion pounds of food worth an estimated $161.6 billion” wasted in the United States (St. Clair). Unfortunately, all of this food does not just break down. Because of how tightly packed the garbage in landfills is there is almost no oxygen reaching the food while it breaks down (Kulpinski 1), so while the food will slowly decompose it will produce large amounts of methane. Jonathan Bloom, a published food waste expert, warns that 23% of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas which has a global warming

The goal of the project is well hearted, and has benifits for the environment, by encouraging recycling and lessening the amount of energy used by making new materials, the tax payers, by eliminating the cost it would take for the county to open a new landfill (which would be very costly), and citizens, by providing compost to use in their gardens.

Envision the intriguing aromas and aspects of all the delectable, appetizing, and savory foods the world has to offer. Now imagine those foods being taken, scarcely eaten, and then banished to a life in the trash thereafter, where they cannot be consumed anymore. Now proceed to think about all of the resources, time, effort, and money that goes into producing food, it all would have been for nothing. Discarding edible food leads to billions of dollars of food lost, along with creating additional trash. Consumers can do simple things to create less food waste.

Food Waste has become a serious issue in Canada, one which needs to be addressed and resolved. $31 billion tonnes of food get thrown away each year, around 47% of food waste is from in home use, 53% of goof waste is from food be produced, processed, transported, sold, and prepared. The organic waste is then dumped into landfill where it undergoes the decomposition, and is used to create methane, which is 25x more damaging to the environment then carbon dioxide. The strange thing is there is many different solutions to food waste! It really takes little effort to go a long way in this situation, I want to make every aware and show how simple preventing food waste can be.

There are billions of people struggling every day to have enough to eat, and billions of tons of food being tossed in the garbage, food waste is gaining increasing awareness as a serious environmental and economic issue. Research shows that about 60 million metric tons of food is wasted a year in the United States, with an estimated value of $162 billion. About 32 million tons of it end up in landfills, at a cost of about $1.5 billion a year to local government this economic crisis is worldwide! My research estimates that a third of all the food produced in the world is never consumed, and the total cost of that food waste could be as high as $400 billion a year. The food discarded by retailers and consumers in the most developed countries would be more than enough to feed all of the world’s hungry people, but it is not just those countries that have problems with food waste, it is also an issue in African countries like South Africa. The problem is expected to grow worse as the world’s population increases, unless actions are taken to reduce the waste. Food waste is not only a social cost, but it contributes to growing environmental problems like global warming, experts say, with the production of food consuming vast quantities of water, fertilizer and land. The fuel that is burned to process, refrigerate and transport it also adds to the environmental cost. Most food waste is thrown away in landfills, where it decomposes and emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

There are billions of people struggling every day to have enough to eat, and billions of tons of food being tossed in the garbage, food waste is gaining increasing awareness as a serious environmental and economic issue. Research shows that about 60 million metric tons of food is wasted a year in the United States, with an estimated value of $162 billion. About 32 million tons of it end up in landfills, at a cost of about $1.5 billion a year to local government this economic crisis is worldwide! My research estimates that a third of all the food produced in the world is never consumed, and the total cost of that food waste could be as high as $400 billion a year. The food discarded by retailers and consumers in the most developed countries would be more than enough to feed all of the world’s hungry people, but it is not just those countries that have problems with food waste, it is also an issue in African countries like South Africa. The problem is expected to grow worse as the world’s population increases, unless actions are taken to reduce the waste. Food waste is not only a social cost, but it contributes to growing environmental problems like global warming, experts say, with the production of food consuming vast quantities of water, fertilizer and land. The fuel that is burned to process, refrigerate and transport it also adds to the environmental cost. Most food waste is thrown away in landfills, where it decomposes and emits methane, a potent

The issue of food waste is one that many people might not consider to be serious, but it is critical to the environment that a solution is devised. Fortunately, there are many simple things that people all over the world can do to keep the Earth healthy. First, if farmers and agricultural employees would prevent overgrazing, pesticide pollution, and over plowing, water would be saved, and the general health of the