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Food Waste, a serious Environmental Issue

Let’s throw $1.5 billion into a landfill. According to the NYT, that is exactly what we are doing with 32 million metric tons of food.

food-waste-recyclingI have written before about the need for change to accomplish food waste recycling. This new article shows how large the problem really is. In landfills, the food decomposes and releases 3.3 billion metric tons of climate changing gases. Now, my friends in the landfill business think that they can recover this gas, but that argument just doesn’t work. Landfills are just inefficient collectors.

We can each make a difference. Where backyard composting can be done, we can recover the food as a valuable asset for our gardens. Where this does not work, we can establish real food recovery systems.

Let’s start small just as several of my students have in the past year by starting a backyard composting system. Every step helps…or wait, why not just stop wasting food?

Read the full article:
Food Waste Is Becoming Serious Economic and Environmental Issue, Report Says
Limited free access; NY Times subscription may be required.

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