I’m confused…<p>If organic compounds break down in a landfill, they release greenhouse gasses. But the same happens when they break down as compost - something the website forgot to mention.<p>I support composting because I think it’s good for the planet to save space in landfills for things that need to be buried. But I don’t see how either approach actually helps climate change.<p>And, in fact, without much study, it seems like landfills are actually sequestering lots of carbon. So if our only focus is on climate change (and it shouldn’t be, to be clear) wouldn’t that be the winning option?<p>Regarding more potent greenhouse gasses from landfills - I believe most landfills in the US burn (or sell) their waste methane, which just turns it into plain ol’ carbon dioxide.
I'm a worm farmer and micro-composter that takes cafe waste and turns it into organic fertiliser in the form of vermicompost.<p>I want to make a distinction between anaerobic processes, aerobic composting and the global respiration and carbon cycle.<p>Anaerobic environments create methane. Aerobic environments create predominantly CO2. One is more harmful than the other in the atmosphere.<p>Quality composting creates a lot of CO2, but it's a natural part of the respiration of the planet for bacteria to respire CO2 from oxygen and carbon. This happens everywhere there is organic residue breaking down in the natural environment... think leaf matter falling to the forrest floor.<p>The difference is that it's a "renewable" process, which is why I don't use peat-moss in my worm trenches.<p>The thing about methane is that it's very often harvested in landfill and burnt as an energy source. However, this may not always be the case, which is why I encourage cafes to take coffee grounds out of landfill and compost them.<p>Just doing my bit.<p>CO2 however is released in the natural carbon cycle (of which composting is a part) into the atmosphere... and according to ANU researchers it's responsible for 10-11 times the annual emissions of fossil fuels.<p>Composting isn't related to our great dinosaur BBQ we have indulged ourselves in for as long as we have been burning fossil fuels, it's actually simply leveraging natural processes to manufacture soil amendments, which means it's a renewable part of the process for generating calories for human consumption.<p>Basically Composting isn't part of the surplus of carbon entering the atmosphere from fossilised dinosaur bacteria.<p>It's just the natural respiration and carbon cycle of the planet.
In my city (Italy) composting is mandatory (i.e. you might get fined if you an inspector discovers you put too much of it in generic waste bins). We have separate brown bins for curbside picking. It's simple to separate organic matter from non-organic matter, and reduces how much waste ends up in landfills. You can pick up bags of compost from the municipal utility, and you can then use it as mulch.
One suggestion. As someone who knows nothing about composting, the first title asks "why composting?" Then it answers:<p>> The purpose of this site is to raise awareness for composting, why it's a good idea, and to encourage as many people as possible to get started.<p>So, we should composte because it's a good idea? Maybe your kid can expand here a little.<p>Also... What is composting?<p>Ps: I'm on mobile maybe the website answers these questions and I can't find where.
If anyone is interested in starting composting at home, I can recommend a Hotbin[1][2]. I recently purchased one and have had a good experience with it so far.<p>Being made entirely out of expanded polypropylene (not polystyrene/EPS/styrofoam), it is well insulated, can come up to 140°F in 3-7 days[3], and hold steady in the thermophilic range of 100°-140°F continuously so long as it is fed regularly. At those temperatures, those things you normally could not compost without horrid smells or pathogen concerns, like meats, fats, or pet wastes, will break down quickly and safely. Per the manufacturer, due to its insulated nature, it can hold those temperatures even in the dead of winter, making it useful year round instead of just a summer thing.<p>Yes, it's more expensive than other bins at the same capacity. But if you want to divert your kitchen waste stream from the landfill into producing a useful soil amendment for your own or others' gardens, it's worth it, IMO.<p>1. <a href="https://hotbincomposting-us.com/" rel="nofollow">https://hotbincomposting-us.com/</a> (US)<p>2. <a href="https://www.hotbincomposting.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.hotbincomposting.com/</a> (England)<p>3. No, I am not exaggerating. Ambient to 140°F inside a week is completely doable.
Here (Ireland) we have separate (brown) bins for food waste. They are also free, while the black (normal waste) bins are not. We also have green bins for recyclables. It's not perfect, but I do think the brown bin system is a pretty good idea.
I got a hot composting bin (basically in insulated bin with some removable panels to allow harvesting of compost, and a thermometer) and it is so much fun… the hottest I’ve had it is 65c! All our vegetable waste, coffee grounds, as well as guinea pig poops and hay, some cardboard… a few months later you have black crumbly compost!
Cool! And you don’t even need a bin, just start layering dirt with brown and green matter. There are many books about composting if you want more guidance.<p>I have three piles going now: one from last year, ready to add to the garden; one started after we stopped adding to the first; and an experimental pile with ashes, human urine, and uprooted plants we don’t want propagating as much.<p>We put food scraps (no meat or bones, but we eat only a little meat anyway, and most animal scraps go to the dog) and paper (without a lot of ink or gloss) in a stainless steel pot and I bring that out to the in-process pile periodically, dumping it and then adding cardboard (tape and labels removed) and soil.<p>As I learn more I’ll adjust.
I worked for some time in Utrecht in The Netherlands, which has a somewhat extreme recycling regime, with punishments, if not done correctly. After the first week of me staying in the flat of the guy I was working for he said "Don't even attempt to put things in the bin (of which they were four) - just let me do it"<p>In the UK you can more or less sneak anything into any bin - of which I currently have three.
I had a compost bin but I eventually just dig a hole in the ground and bury my food wastes.<p>Every since doing that, our weekly trash has been reduced pretty significantly. Instead of filling up our trash bin, we only fill up half.<p>Its been about 1 year, I've dug more than 300 holes in the backyard and I'm having so much fun.
I highly recommend vermicomposting which involves hundreds of even thousands of little worms. I have a HungryBin and don't even need a green bin anymore, at least not for kitchen waste. What you get is compost which is great for gardening and worm tea which is great fertilizer.
In Berlin, bio gas to power the (normal) garbage trucks is created from the separate food trash bin contents.<p><a href="https://www.bsr.de/biogasanlage-22250.php" rel="nofollow">https://www.bsr.de/biogasanlage-22250.php</a>
Composting is nice if there is a dedicated collection of it (like in some part of Italy) and if it is actually used (eg. not landfill/burned anyway).<p>Doing compost at home for yourself is not working in general because most people live in an apartment:
- People won't know what to do with it and will throw it away.
- A large amount of moisty stuff in a small room with bad ventilation.<p>That's my experience of seeing city people doing it.
respect. great job explaining why composting is different since “it all decays anyway no matter where it is”<p>to dad: sounds like you’re doing a great job parenting too
How nice of your family to offer to send people free compost bins!<p>If your daughter or son doesn't mind a usability suggestion, I would get rid of the font-weight: 300. As an experiment I tried overriding this with the default font-weight: 400 and the page became much more readable.<p>font-weight: 300 is modern and trendy and found in a lot of themes, but it makes text hard to read.
It's a nicely put together site and I congratulate your kid on a job well done.<p>That said, I don't see the space taken up by landfills as a big problem. Not in the US anyway. If they are done properly (and yes, that is a big if), they shouldn't release toxins or otherwise have downsides comparable to all the other sorts of damage we do to our environment.
> <i>Huge landfills are ruining the Earth because they are taking up a lot of space...The biggest landfill in the United States...is 2,200 acres wide</i><p>Ignoring the minor detail that acres are a measurement of area and not width, the contiguous US is 2 _billion_ acres. 2,200 acres is 0.00011% of that. We can easily spare the space.<p>> <i>The organic materials in these landfills can decay and release greenhouse gasses...when these items go to landfills, they will take much longer to decompose than normal</i><p>This appears to contradict your kid's message, because it conveys that landfills reduce the rate of greenhouse gas emissions.<p>The page also has zero citations.
Is the title incomplete?<p>> My oldest kid made this to raise awareness that composting garbage dumps...<p>Dumps... what? What does it dump? 'Dump' isn't even mentioned in the article.
Nice ideas, but factually completely wrong.<p>The real reason why people should compose or better whole cities should, is because the nutrition in the green waste should go back in circulation which they wont do if they end up in a landfill/waste incineration.<p>The greenhouse gasses reasoning is bogus it decomposes anyway
Modern landfills are also used as energy source where the worst kind of greenhouse gases are burned and turned into less severe CO2.<p>The space argument is also nonsense. There is plenty place on earth the real problem here is that moving trash is expensive hence poor cities are surrounded by garbage mountains.