I meant at an atomic and molecular level. You're right that decomposing in the wrong way will produce different waste products, like methane, which is worse in

I meant at an atomic and molecular level. You're right that decomposing in the wrong way will produce different waste products, like methane, which is worse in the short term than CO2 (IIRC, better in the 80+ year time frame). If we look at the biosphere, the vast majority of elements that make up a given lifeform get recycled within months or years. If they weren't, the waste products would accumulate in the environment. We do see that in geological strata, e.g. limestone deposits, and fossil fuels. Those deposits generally took millions upon millions of years to accumulate because those leftover waste products were pretty minuscule compared to the biomass turning over. We're producing waste faster than any other biological process in Earth's history, and it's new kinds of waste that no existing processes (other than defaults like erosion and UV irradiation) break down and recycle. And as a result those waste products are accumulating fast in the environment and unfortunately doing a ton of damage to the many intricate ecosystems that we indirectly depend on. Particularly plastic, forever chemicals, and an overwhelming amount of basically everything. I support composting and produce as little landfill waste as I can get away with. I "recycle" (as much as putting something in the recycle bin is actually recycling) plastics, glass, aluminum, paper, etc. I compost all my food waste, and the only thing I put in the regular trash is stuff that I can't reasonably clean and recycle (e.g. tainted food wrappers). My composting is pretty unsophisticated. I just toss it out into the woods, spreading it out on purpose, as opposed to concentrating it in a compost pile. The Sun's UV will disinfect and being open to the air will dessiccate it before it is broken down by microbiota and insects eventually. I am slightly worried about infecting/breeding/spreading dangerous bacteria, particularly from meat products (which I make an extra effort to never waste) so I am not yet composting to produce soil for my garden.