Within my current involvement with the local JCI, I have been collecting information about biodegradable waste and composting. This is a question of importance as more than 30 percent of French waste could be biodegradable.
Meanwhile, recyclable waste – paper, cartons, glasses – represent just one percent more and are sorted out and recycled. I thus believe food leftovers, fruits and vegetable peelings, coffee and tea waste belong to a special bin.
This would have a lot of advantages as we will see in today’s post and I hope this will be as common as sorting out recyclables in a decade.
1. Decreasing the amounts of ultimate waste
Despite sorting out and recycling, still too much waste is sent to the landfill or to be burned down. Composting our biodegradable waste could slash by more than thirty percent these quantities. With recycling and composting, only ultimate waste would remain in our bins.
2. Decreasing greenhouse gases emissions
Degrading food waste and similar stuff are producing methane, a very potent greenhouse gas – 23 times worse than carbon dioxide – while decomposing. As CUESA.org notes : ” Landfills account for 34% of methane emissions in the United States. “
3. A natural fertilizer
Compost is an excellent raw material to fertilize gardens and fields alike. This is also a great way to decrease the use of chemical fertilizers. Furthermore, composting is just turning a waste into a resource.
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Composting should be an essential and central component of sustainable development as it benefits :
- the society, the waste could be sorted and dealt with by people who would otherwise become job and or homeless ;
- the environment, for the afore-mentioned arguments (ie. decreased methane emissions and so on) ;
- the economy, as a waste would become a resource, thus making money. This is a perfect exemplification of the circular economy and the three Rs at work.
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I hope this short argumentation convinced you to start composting. If you are interested in starting to compost your organic waste, here is a list of great sources :
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I’d like to thank my friend Olga for pointing out how composting is such a perfect fit for sustainable development. I had totally missed that point !