Composting food scraps keeps them out of landfills where they  

release methane- a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon. 

 

Food scraps currently make up 14% of what ends up in landfills annually and they cost precious taxpayers dollars to be collected and disposed of.  They're a terrible resource to waste!  Instead of rotting in landfills, our food scraps can be turned into compost that can help restore our depleted top soils.  Properly managed compost does not release methane into the atmosphere. 

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In October of 2023 the Federal EPA  found that "approximately 58 percent of methane emissions from landfills are from food waste, 61 percent of which is not captured, but released into the atmosphere."

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Does that impact our region? YES!

Climate Trace uses state-of-the-art monitoring to highlight climate warming hot spots globally. The maps below demonstrate two large hot spots in our geographic area- they are the Chaffee and Modern landfills where our trash is hauled.  A primary cause of these hot spots is methane gas released from our rotting food waste.  Some methane is diverted into energy by the Chaffee landfill to power their facility. The Modern Landfill by contrast has significantly higher emissions levels. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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