Read time: ~8 minutes
I was raised in your average suburban Midwest household. I barely knew what and where the landfill was and I don’t think I even knew what composting was until college. Okay find, until I was very well into my 20s.
So imagine my surprise when a very orange and very power hungry, insecure little man managed to rally an entire political party into believing Climate Change was fake.
Like, we’ve known about this since at least the 60s.
Anyway, I live in Chicago now, and turns out not only are there are many different types of composting but it also seems to be going more mainstream. Or maybe I’m extremely cocooned in my sustainable bubble. 🤷🏻♀️
The City of Chicago just launched a free compost program. This. Is. Amazing. When cities get involved we can divert HUGE amounts of waste from a landfill. That’s making change!
Either way, there’s a lot of debate around composting. Does it really help fight climate change, or is it just another feel-good sustainability trend? After diving deep into the research (and seeing the impact firsthand), I can confidently say: composting makes a real difference.
Let’s dive in!
So, What is composting?
Composting is combining organic materials, (an easy way to remember is ‘anything that once was alive’) into a bin to decompose. The result (with added work) is a material called compost that can be used to fertilize soil, reducing the need for chemical fertilizers.
What is Global Warming And Is Composting Related?
The words ‘global warming’ get thrown around a lot — in jokes, politics, rallies, marketing, but what is global warming?
I think we all know it means the earth is getting warmer, but why?
How?
What causes it?
Why is that bad?
Personally, I like this definition from Nasa:
“Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth’s climate system … due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere.”
But how is composting related to that?
Easy answer — composting helps remove harmful greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. It not only acts as a natural fertilizer for soil to help grow new plants, it also lets beneficial bacteria and fungi thrive which contributes to healthy soil.
The benefits of composting include:
- Helping reduce greenhouse gases
- Reducing food waste and therefore methane emissions
- Using compost to fertilize new plants which helps them grow
- New plants absorb carbon dioxide and take it out of the atmosphere.
- Compost can also help retain water in a drought
- It can prevent erosion during a storm. Both of these things occur more as earth’s temperature changes
What Exactly Is a Greenhouse Gas?
Let’s start with what the four main greenhouse gases are:
- Carbon Dioxide
- Methane
- Nitrous Oxide
- Water Vapor
You’ve most likely heard of these whether you knew they were greenhouse gases or not. I’ve said it a few times now, but the words ‘greenhouse gas’ probably make you cringe because it’s been ingrained in us that they’re bad.
BUT it’s not that simple.
Greenhouse gases are kind of like the good villain. They started off helping Earth but now it’s backfiring (hint: because of humans).
Let me break down the science really quickly and explain the greenhouse effect.
Similar to the way a Midwesterner emerges from winter craving the sun, the earth craves it as well. As she absorbs the rays (energy) from the sun, she releases infrared radiation (Wait! IR is just a type of energy we feel as heat but cannot see).
She gives off IR in order to achieve an energy balance.
An example of energy balance is you making sure your energy consumed (calories) roughly matches your energy output (physical activity).
The Earth is trying to do the same thing. If there were no greenhouse gases, the earth would remain at about 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-18C). Toasty for a Midwesterner, but not ideal.
Life as we know it has been able to thrive because of greenhouse gases and the greenhouse effect.
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is the largest contributor to Global Warming
CO2 makes up a small part of the atmosphere, but just as a small amount of poison can take down a human, a small amount of C02 in the atmosphere is not good.
The main human contributors of CO2 are:
- Transportation
- Electricity Production — (Burning of coal, oil, & natural gas)
- Industrial Activity
- Deforestation
- Cement Manufacturing.
Since C02 is a natural substance, Earth has a way to naturally absorb carbon; these are called carbon sinks. They’re basically places that absorb more carbon dioxide than they produce (pretty cool, huh?).
Plants are probably the first carbon sink that comes to mind and you would be correct!
There are other kinds of carbon sinks as well, but the problem we’re running into is that humans are putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the carbon sinks can take out.
Additionally, harmful behavior such as deforestation reduces existing carbon sinks. We’re essentially releasing more greenhouse gases but removing the natural ways that Earth removes them.
The Greenhouse Effect — Why It Works & Why It’s Broken
Normally, here’s how it works:
- The sun sends energy to Earth.
- Earth absorbs some and bounces the rest back into the atomosphere as heat (infrared radiation).
- Some of it gets released into space, but most get absorbed by greenhouse gases.
- They trap and send back just enough of that heat to send keep the planet *perfect* .
This process has worked pretty well for the past several million years. But now the activities that fuel our modern lives are releasing an excess amount of greenhouse gases.
Greenhouse gases aren’t inherently bad. In fact, without them, Earth would be a freezing 0°F (-18°C)—which is great if you’re a Midwesterner, but not ideal for, you know, life as we know it.
It’s a perfect system — until humans started pumping waaaay too many greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Now, instead of releasing excess heat back into space, those gases trap more and more warmth, throwing everything out of balance.
More greenhouse gases = more heat trapped = rising global temperatures.
Composting helps reduce one of the biggest culprits — methane. When food waste breaks down in landfills, it releases methane, which is 25 times more powerful at trapping heat than CO2. By composting, we keep food waste out of landfills, reducing methane emissions and helping to slow climate change.
Methane Is The 2nd Largest Contributor To Global Warming
Methane gas makes up even less of the atmosphere than CO2. BUT, and it’s a big one, Methane is, at minimum, capable of trapping 25x more heat than CO2. So while there may be more CO2 in the atmosphere, less Methane is still worse.
Human related methane emissions include:
- Producing and transporting coal, natural gas, and oil.
- Livestock & Agriculture
- Municipal Landfills
I’m sure you’ve heard, eating less meat can help. One reason is because methane comes from livestock and other agricultural practices (okay I’ll say it, it comes from animal poop).
Food Waste & The United States
Another benefit of composting is removing food waste that would have gone to a landfill. Even though food waste is an organic material, because of the way landfills exist, organic matter generates methane.
At these levels it’s not great.
By composting we’re eliminating the methane it would have released and turning it into new compost that can help fertilize new plants!
Americans throw out about 4.4 lbs of trash every day. And in the U.S., it is estimated that 30–40% of food is wasted. That’s $161 BILLION USD worth of food being wasted.
Thrown out, not used.
It’s not just those spinach bags sitting in the back of the fridge unopened that most of us are guilty of.
Food waste can occur at any stage of the food chain. During harvesting; production; damage from birds, bacteria, insects; faulty equipment during storage; and imperfect food deemed too ugly to sell at the grocery store.
What happens when food waste is sent to the landfill and why does it matter?
How A Landfill Works
As we know, a landfill is a hole in the ground, protected by lining, to prevent the yuckies from leaking into the soil and groundwater.
When food (or anything) is sent to the landfill, it’s compacted tightly together and layered until the hole is filled. Once filled, it’s covered to keep the smell in and rodents out, then covered in vegetation to make it pretty.
And while yes, the methane released from landfills CAN be collected and used as an energy source, not nearly enough of that is happening.
Landfills emit an estimated 3.7 million metric tons of methane over a year 20 period.
- Equivalent to 295 million metric tons of C02
- 66 million gas-powered passenger cars
- 79 coal-fired power plants.
If we composted 75% of US food waste for one year it would drive an 80–90% emissions reduction compared to if it were sent to the landfill. 80%!!
A clear benefit of composting is that it lessens how much we’re sending to a landfill.
Are The Benefits of Composting Really Worth It?
Honestly, yes.
Does composting really help climate change? The answer is yes — but only if more of us do it. While composting alone won’t solve the climate crisis, it’s one of the easiest ways to cut down methane emissions, enrich our soil, and reduce waste.
Is it easy? Absolutely not, but to be cliche here, what good things in life are easy?
If we all take small steps in the right direction, that’s a large step for everyone. By raising awareness we’re letting people know that we want change, we want to do better!
I challenge you (my therapist’s favorite words to me) to do a quick Google search and see if composting is something that’s feasible for you or if you have access to a composting service.
As we get closer to Farmer’s Market weather, check out your local farmer’s market to see what resources are available about composting.
If none of these work for you, take a look at what you’re throwing away. Could you re-purpose, give away, or throw away less?
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