🖖 Beyond the bin

Methane.

A greenhouse gas 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide (CO₂) at trapping heat.

Reminder:

If too much methane and other greenhouse gases build up in our atmosphere, temperatures will skyrocket.

We’re talking Venus temperatures. 464°C.

No more humans living on the surface at that point.

Let’s avoid that

The way we eat plays a huge role in the amount of methane in the air.

Industrial livestock production is infamous for the amounts of methane waste produced.

That one is easy.

Enough individuals can reduce or eliminate their industrial meat consumption so that it becomes no longer economically viable for the factories to continue operations.

Today I’m talking about another source.

It’s what we don’t eat that’s part of the problem too.

I’m talking food waste.

Often, good value is determined by the amount of a product received for a certain price.

In other words I pay as little as possible while receiving as much food as possible.

But our eyes are usually hungrier than our stomach.

After we’re full we’re left with uneaten food. If it’s enough for another portion you pack it away for another meal.

Sadly if it’s 2-4 sad bites left it gets discarded.

Seems harmless.

But not when you factor the millions of other diners doing the same thing.

At every meal.

Every day.

The facts

Food decaying is a natural part of the circle of life.

Organic matter feeds lifeforms that feed other lifeforms that feed…

So what’s the difference between an apple rotting on the forest floor and my remaining fried rice from last night in the trash?

Air.

In a landfill food waste gets smushed and packed in by heavier trash. This creates anaerobic pockets- as in no oxygen.

Under these conditions, bacteria that thrive without oxygen will break down food in the absence of bacteria that need oxygen (aerobic).

Different group of micro-diners means different waste products.

Methane.

Solution

There are three answers to this problem, and they’re all simple… sort of.

At least the first two are.

First

As an individual, keep portions to a healthy size when cooking at home and when purchasing food from a restaurant.

Yeah. The first one is that simple.

You gotta be aware at each meal.

And honest with yourself.

“Ok. I’m super hungry. But can I finish all that I’m about to put in front of me?”

If the answer is no, make a change.

Two

Currency speaks louder than words.

Ask your favourite restaurants what they do with their food waste. And publicly patron those that are making active decisions to reduce their food waste at all levels.

This means proper ordering from suppliers.

Not making ginormous portions.

And those that create menus utilising as much of a product as possible.

When buying carrots there’s more to use than just the orange part.

Peels can be collected with other veggies like onion skins to make vegetable stock for soups, rice or cooking liquid.

Same with the stems. Or you can chop them up fine and add to other foods.

The leaves can be eaten in a salad or cooked like you would spinach.

Roots can be pickled.

There’s options.

C.

This is where that ‘sort of’ comes in that I mentioned earlier.

Again. It’s simple.

But is it?

I’m talking about composting.

Compost is where you mix food scraps with brown organic materials. Think dead leaves, paper products and egg cartons.

Those food scraps could be any veggie trimmings and meal scraps except for citrus peels, meat and animal products like dairy.

When this combination breaks down it is loaded with carbon and nitrogen.

That’s beautiful plant food right there.

So why ‘sort of?’

In the modern lifestyle, where are we going to put a compost bin at home? If you live in a home or on your own land, you’re good.

You can set it up in a corner in the back and use it for your garden.

But what about the countless others living in metropolitan apartment buildings?

There are devices that allow you to create compost indoors.

But what do you do with your compost once you have it? Especially if you don’t have your own garden.

Most of us don’t have the means or connections to deliver compost to the farms that grow our food.

Same goes for responsible restaurants.

They can collect food waste for composting. But the infrastructure doesn’t exist at the right scale to do anything with it.

This would need to happen at the community/city level:

Additional waste bins need to be added next to the recycling and trash bins.

Educational programs in schools are needed to normalise the habit at an early age.

Logistics are need for delivering compost to the farms that need it.

To make it even tougher, industrially grown produce has pesticides and other additives that make them useless in a compost pile.

Who’s gonna check that the right foods make it in and the wrong ones don’t?

Would a certification program need to be put in place so restaurants can show they use clean produce?

And by extension, the only ones allowed to contribute?

Also why should they contribute?

Perhaps a discount on the produce they purchase based on the weight (or other measurement) of the compost they contribute?

Not so easy

So yeah. It’s simple… sort of.

I’m not a city planner, so I don’t know which piece of the puzzle I should start with.

It’s hard to teach the kids the importance of composting if there’s not an infrastructure in place they can see in action.

It’s hard to have new compost bins added to city recycling bins if there’s no means to take them to the farms.

But it just takes the actions of one more person to build the momentum towards the having the right habits and policies in place.

Just one more person.

So I thank you in advance for reducing the amount of food you but in the bin.

Please share this email so the momentum can continue.

Here are a few apartment appropriate composters. These are not affiliate links, so I don’t get a percentage if you decide to purchase. Nor am I endorsing these brands over others. I don’t own one because we haven’t moved into our new apartment yet. I’m just showing you that there are options.