6 ms·

This article is pretty off the mark. Yes, eliminating food waste will not solve the climate problem. However, eliminating food waste will absolutely help the cl

This article is pretty off the mark. Yes, eliminating food waste will not solve the climate problem. However, eliminating food waste will absolutely help the climate problem as well as reduce needed landfill space, and provide valuable compost. There is very little downside to encouraging people to waste less food and to divert food waste from the trash into compost. Many people already have compost programs in their city, so it is trivial for them to stop throwing food in the trash. Food waste in landfills breaks down super slowly and releases methane into the atmosphere. This is not good. It's much better to use the food waste to make compost or to use an anaerobic digester and make carbon negative methane.

hackeraccount 7y ago
What is the downside?
- swiley 7y ago
  Having to sort trash and manage a biological process are two that I can think of.
- dirtyid 7y ago
  Cynical hottake, 150B of food waste per year in US, aka one mans trash is another's revenue.
- jartelt 7y ago
  Industrial compost sites and anaerobic digesters are likely a bit smelly. People also may gripe about having a compost bin in addition to a recycling and trash bin.
  - tastyfreeze 7y ago
    Aerobic compost is not smelly. Anaerobic fermentation caused by not mixing in enough oxygen is very smelly and slow.
    - jartelt 7y ago
      Yea, smell issues are from transport of the food waste to the facilities. If you have a facility accepting waste, there will be trunks bringing in smelly stuff on a regular basis.
lapink 7y ago
I never get the argument that because we are not solving the entire problem at once we shouldn't make any step in the right direction. Changing mentalities is a big deal. Eventually it can trickle down to our entire way of life and make for a smooth (r)evolution, with no one missing the old world.
- Flozzin 7y ago
  It's easier to tear something down than to build something. This is why people write articles like this. They acknowledge the problem, claim to be on the 'correct' side of the issue and do nothing! It's not their fault all the options are bad. People like this continue the status quo while acting like they want to move to better solutions.
- hurricanetc 7y ago
  Good is the enemy of perfect. I see it all the time now in all ranges of things but especially in politics and climate change. People want to have their way and if they don't have their way they would prefer nothing at all.
- colechristensen 7y ago
  Token solutions that make people feel good but accomplish little or often make things worse distract attention and resources from real problems and significant problems.
  - jamil7 7y ago
    Got any evidence to back that up? You’re implying that wasting less food is somehow either distracting or taking resources away from real problems. In my experience it’s the people doing nothing that are so quick to point fingers and find fault with every attempt at improving our situation.
    - prepend 7y ago
      I think bikeshedding [0] is evidence. [0] https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Parkinsons-law-of-triviality-bikeshedding https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Parkinsons-law-of-t...
buckminster 7y ago
Another option: I saw a program about a factory in China that takes waste fruit and veg. They mash it up and feed it to billions of cockroaches. The cockroach excrement is used as fertiliser and the cockroaches are fed to chickens. It's very low tech. The greatest expense seemed to be a team of people picking plastic rubbish out of the incoming waste.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  > The greatest expense seemed to be a team of people picking plastic rubbish out of the incoming waste. This seems kind of unnecessary? The cockroaches will do the same job. (Well, the inverse job of picking the food out of the inedible trash.) I guess if you're harvesting the excrement, the trash might get in the way.
  - logfromblammo 7y ago
    Bits of plastic smaller than the maximum diameter of beetle poop are probably not going to be recognized and removed as plastic anyway. Just shake it all through some progressively finer screens and blow the remaining plastics off the tops of the screens with a blast of air. Perhaps the plastics would gum up the food-shredder?
crazygringo 7y ago
> Many people already have compost programs in their city, so it is trivial for them to stop throwing food in the trash. Really? I live in NYC and have never seen compost anywhere, except perhaps a community garden I'd have to walk to 20 blocks away, that is usually closed and locked? It's certainly not in my building or on the street or in any lunch restaurants I go to. Even with high-end sustainable chains, it seems you can't trust composting actually happens [1] -- and in any case, they make up a tiny tiny sliver compared to traditional fast food. I'm not sure where you live but "trivial" composting would appear to be a rare exception in the US. Since you seem to have it wherever you live, I'm curious how your city has made composting trivial for residents? What is the blueprint other cities should start following? [1] https://ny.eater.com/2020/1/16/21067009/sweetgreen-nyc-composting-bowls https://ny.eater.com/2020/1/16/21067009/sweetgreen-nyc-compo...
- edoceo 7y ago
  West coast has three bins generally. Trash/landfill, recycle and compost.
- ethagnawl 7y ago
  New York City has many, _many_ composting options: the city offers organic waste pickup (I don't know the details, but you'll see the brown and orange containers on trash pickup day), some food co-ops and green markets accept compost and, as you've mentioned, some community gardens also accept it. Most/all? Whole Foods also have a dedicated compost receptacle -- I have no idea what their policy on people depositing compost from outside the store is. Here's a link to GrowNYC compost drop-off locations: https://www.grownyc.org/compost/locations https://www.grownyc.org/compost/locations
  - bobthepanda 7y ago
    The city program is limited. Efforts to expand it have stalled due to issues with compost storage in apartments and rats. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/07/ick-rats-roaches-rank-smells-dampen-nyc-composting-program https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/07/ick-rats-roa...
  - 7y ago

hackeraccount 7y ago

What is the downside?

swiley 7y ago
Having to sort trash and manage a biological process are two that I can think of.
dirtyid 7y ago
Cynical hottake, 150B of food waste per year in US, aka one mans trash is another's revenue.
jartelt 7y ago
Industrial compost sites and anaerobic digesters are likely a bit smelly. People also may gripe about having a compost bin in addition to a recycling and trash bin.
- tastyfreeze 7y ago
  Aerobic compost is not smelly. Anaerobic fermentation caused by not mixing in enough oxygen is very smelly and slow.
  - jartelt 7y ago
    Yea, smell issues are from transport of the food waste to the facilities. If you have a facility accepting waste, there will be trunks bringing in smelly stuff on a regular basis.

lapink 7y ago

I never get the argument that because we are not solving the entire problem at once we shouldn't make any step in the right direction. Changing mentalities is a big deal. Eventually it can trickle down to our entire way of life and make for a smooth (r)evolution, with no one missing the old world.

Flozzin 7y ago
It's easier to tear something down than to build something. This is why people write articles like this. They acknowledge the problem, claim to be on the 'correct' side of the issue and do nothing! It's not their fault all the options are bad. People like this continue the status quo while acting like they want to move to better solutions.
hurricanetc 7y ago
Good is the enemy of perfect. I see it all the time now in all ranges of things but especially in politics and climate change. People want to have their way and if they don't have their way they would prefer nothing at all.
colechristensen 7y ago
Token solutions that make people feel good but accomplish little or often make things worse distract attention and resources from real problems and significant problems.
- jamil7 7y ago
  Got any evidence to back that up? You’re implying that wasting less food is somehow either distracting or taking resources away from real problems. In my experience it’s the people doing nothing that are so quick to point fingers and find fault with every attempt at improving our situation.
  - prepend 7y ago
    I think bikeshedding [0] is evidence. [0] https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Parkinsons-law-of-triviality-bikeshedding https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Parkinsons-law-of-t...

buckminster 7y ago

Another option: I saw a program about a factory in China that takes waste fruit and veg. They mash it up and feed it to billions of cockroaches. The cockroach excrement is used as fertiliser and the cockroaches are fed to chickens. It's very low tech. The greatest expense seemed to be a team of people picking plastic rubbish out of the incoming waste.

thaumasiotes 7y ago
> The greatest expense seemed to be a team of people picking plastic rubbish out of the incoming waste. This seems kind of unnecessary? The cockroaches will do the same job. (Well, the inverse job of picking the food out of the inedible trash.) I guess if you're harvesting the excrement, the trash might get in the way.
- logfromblammo 7y ago
  Bits of plastic smaller than the maximum diameter of beetle poop are probably not going to be recognized and removed as plastic anyway. Just shake it all through some progressively finer screens and blow the remaining plastics off the tops of the screens with a blast of air. Perhaps the plastics would gum up the food-shredder?

crazygringo 7y ago

> Many people already have compost programs in their city, so it is trivial for them to stop throwing food in the trash. Really? I live in NYC and have never seen compost anywhere, except perhaps a community garden I'd have to walk to 20 blocks away, that is usually closed and locked? It's certainly not in my building or on the street or in any lunch restaurants I go to. Even with high-end sustainable chains, it seems you can't trust composting actually happens [1] -- and in any case, they make up a tiny tiny sliver compared to traditional fast food. I'm not sure where you live but "trivial" composting would appear to be a rare exception in the US. Since you seem to have it wherever you live, I'm curious how your city has made composting trivial for residents? What is the blueprint other cities should start following? [1] https://ny.eater.com/2020/1/16/21067009/sweetgreen-nyc-composting-bowls https://ny.eater.com/2020/1/16/21067009/sweetgreen-nyc-compo...

edoceo 7y ago
West coast has three bins generally. Trash/landfill, recycle and compost.
ethagnawl 7y ago
New York City has many, _many_ composting options: the city offers organic waste pickup (I don't know the details, but you'll see the brown and orange containers on trash pickup day), some food co-ops and green markets accept compost and, as you've mentioned, some community gardens also accept it. Most/all? Whole Foods also have a dedicated compost receptacle -- I have no idea what their policy on people depositing compost from outside the store is. Here's a link to GrowNYC compost drop-off locations: https://www.grownyc.org/compost/locations https://www.grownyc.org/compost/locations
- bobthepanda 7y ago
  The city program is limited. Efforts to expand it have stalled due to issues with compost storage in apartments and rats. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/07/ick-rats-roaches-rank-smells-dampen-nyc-composting-program https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/07/ick-rats-roa...
- 7y ago