Every day, communities across the U.S. send tens of thousands of trucks to bury biodegradable materials:
- paper products
- food scraps
- yard trimmings
These materials amount to 1/2 of our discarded resources. When buried in a landfill, those lettuce heads, grass clippings and paper boxes don’t just break down as they would in nature or in a compost pile. They decompose anaerobically, without oxygen, and in the process become the number one source of human-caused methane and a major player in climate change.
The easiest, first step that can produce significant climate results right now is to STOP landfill-produced methane.
Seize the Paper: Commit to recycling a minimum of 75% of all paper and composting the rest by 2012. Paper is the largest share of biodegradable materials in a landfill, so recycling and composting paper products will take the largest bite out of a community’s methane emissions. The infrastructure to recycle and market the paper already exists; the key is to make it happen.
Source Separate: Require source separation of residential and business waste into 3 streams: compostables, recyclables and residuals. Source separation is pivotal to maximizing the environmental and economic potential of these resources.
Feed Local Soils: Support local farmers and sustainable food production with community composting infrastructure. The benefits of amending soils with composted organics are well-proven to increase long-term soil productivity, reduce irrigation needs and use of petroleum-based synthetic fertilizers, and increase water infiltration from today’s frequent and intense storm events.
Stop Creating Methane Now: No matter how the waste industry “greenwashes” its “new and improved landfills,” there is only one proven method to truly prevent methane emissions — keep compostable organics out of landfills. READ MORE !
