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The cheapest form of municipal composting typically involves yard waste (grass trimmings, fallen leaves, etc.). That all takes a tremendous amount of landfill s
by da_chicken 3y ago
The cheapest form of municipal composting typically involves yard waste (grass trimmings, fallen leaves, etc.). That all takes a tremendous amount of landfill space, and it's all somewhat uniform and predictable. It's partly why many suburbs have been doing separate yard waste collection for decades.
The reason they don't always want food waste is that it attracts animals that eat food waste (crows, seagulls, raccoons, possums, cockroaches, flies, etc.) and the composting is often done in open-air windrow heaps. Composting also works most efficiently when the ratio of carbon and nitrogen is in balance, and food waste is somewhat different than yard waste. It makes it harder to manage to get good compost quickly.
- philwelch 3y agoYard waste I get, although IMO you’re a fool if you just give away your own perfectly good yard waste instead of using it to feed your own yard.
- da_chicken 3y agoThe output of extra work is only free if your time has no value.
- philwelch 3y agoIt’s not even extra work in most cases. You can just let your lawnmower spit out your lawn clippings back onto your lawn for instance.
- da_chicken 3y agoAt least where I've lived (except Arizona where I had no lawn) I've never been able to mulch or leave clippings on the lawn the whole season. Once the grass is actually in growing season, it grows too fast. If the grass is wet, you can't mulch. If you cut twice as often, the thatch doesn't decompose quickly enough. For me it was just more work now so that I could do more work later.