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Vermont passed a mandatory trash re-cycling law several years ago that was phased in and is now apparently in full effect. Included is the provision for mandatory composting. https://dec.vermont.gov/waste-manage...rsal-recycling
Without getting into my libertarian attitude about anything "mandatory," let's analyze the wisdom of this:
We've discussed here many times before the inefficiencies of re-cycling most materials--
-paper is 100% naturally re-cyclable if we just let it rot. The Carbon content returns to the atmosphere from whence it came, and mineral content (ash) replenishes the soil in like manner. If it's industrially re-cycled, the minerals are lost and the product is of inferior quality and eventually ends up in the dump anyway. Better to re-purpose it as fuel.
-plastic- a material made from petroleum cracking waste product (right there it could be considered "re-cycled," or at least "re-purposed" stuff.) It takes a long time (on human time scale) to degrade in the dump. ...When re-cycled, it also makes an inferior grade product with limited use, so demand is low. Better re-purposed as fuel.
-metals (Al, Cu, Ag, Au,Fe/steel)--Bingo!-- good quality product when re-cycled and that also saves energy-- less energy to turn scrap into useable product than newly mined ore.
Now, we come to food-- an area where "conservation" should be having a bigger role. According to the UN FAO, 30% (!!) of annual food production is wasted. People have plenty of room to improve on how efficiently they prepare and eat their food....But, be that as it may, there's always going to be some discarded stuff-- apple cores, excess fat on the T-Bone, food that has spoiled, etc.
How effective is it really to compost kitchen scraps?--Not very...In the article, written no doubt by a genius journalist, it states that food scraps entering the landfill are turned to methane which warms the planet....they should be fed to animals instead....Perhaps they were sick on the day they covered the carbon cycle in the 4th grade--- if you feed it to animals, it gets turned to manure which still gets turned to methane, so - no gain by composting. (We won't argue about how little methane affects climate.) ...Not to mention, many landfills do collect the methane and use it for energy production, ie-- net loss to the environment if you don't throw the scraps in the landfill.
Composting is great if you live in a high rise and your garden is one tomato plant and a few petunias & geraniums in pots. But of you have a sizeable garden, it doesn't amount to much.---It replaces only a little of the minerals --If you ate 70% of the food, the waste only replaces 30% of the minerals lost from the soil. (Better than nothing, I guess.) Even less of the Nitrogen content is returned to the soil because nitrogen from organic sources is quickly turned to ammonia (NH3) which is very volatile, ie- quickly lost to the atmosphere....For large scale food production, composting doesn't help much. You still need to use inorganic fertilizer production to meet the needs.
One has to wonder if the economic inefficiencies of processing of food waste on a community-wide scale is worth it.
Vermont passed a mandatory trash re-cycling law several years ago that was phased in and is now apparently in full effect. Included is the provision for mandatory composting. https://dec.vermont.gov/waste-manage...rsal-recycling
Without getting into my libertarian attitude about anything "mandatory," let's analyze the wisdom of this:
We've discussed here many times before the inefficiencies of re-cycling most materials--
-paper is 100% naturally re-cyclable if we just let it rot. The Carbon content returns to the atmosphere from whence it came, and mineral content (ash) replenishes the soil in like manner. If it's industrially re-cycled, the minerals are lost and the product is of inferior quality and eventually ends up in the dump anyway. Better to re-purpose it as fuel.
-plastic- a material made from petroleum cracking waste product (right there it could be considered "re-cycled," or at least "re-purposed" stuff.) It takes a long time (on human time scale) to degrade in the dump. ...When re-cycled, it also makes an inferior grade product with limited use, so demand is low. Better re-purposed as fuel.
-metals (Al, Cu, Ag, Au,Fe/steel)--Bingo!-- good quality product when re-cycled and that also saves energy-- less energy to turn scrap into useable product than newly mined ore.
Now, we come to food-- an area where "conservation" should be having a bigger role. According to the UN FAO, 30% (!!) of annual food production is wasted. People have plenty of room to improve on how efficiently they prepare and eat their food....But, be that as it may, there's always going to be some discarded stuff-- apple cores, excess fat on the T-Bone, food that has spoiled, etc.
How effective is it really to compost kitchen scraps?--Not very...In the article, written no doubt by a genius journalist, it states that food scraps entering the landfill are turned to methane which warms the planet....they should be fed to animals instead....Perhaps they were sick on the day they covered the carbon cycle in the 4th grade--- if you feed it to animals, it gets turned to manure which still gets turned to methane, so - no gain by composting. (We won't argue about how little methane affects climate.) ...Not to mention, many landfills do collect the methane and use it for energy production, ie-- net loss to the environment if you don't throw the scraps in the landfill.
Composting is great if you live in a high rise and your garden is one tomato plant and a few petunias & geraniums in pots. But of you have a sizeable garden, it doesn't amount to much.---It replaces only a little of the minerals --If you ate 70% of the food, the waste only replaces 30% of the minerals lost from the soil. (Better than nothing, I guess.) Even less of the Nitrogen content is returned to the soil because nitrogen from organic sources is quickly turned to ammonia (NH3) which is very volatile, ie- quickly lost to the atmosphere....For large scale food production, composting doesn't help much. You still need to use inorganic fertilizer production to meet the needs.
One has to wonder if the economic inefficiencies of processing of food waste on a community-wide scale is worth it.
Does that mean they want consumers to burn the plastics? Or are they setting up incinerators in central collection sites?
As far as composting as a law; many food scraps would go into those compost heaps and bins. Set up outside that would attract all the scavengers like bear, fox, coyote, skunks, possums, crows and seagulls. It would tend to make it a more interesting neighborhood. I presume the Game Commission would get plenty of calls about nuisance animals. But where does one relocate those animals when everybody is composting?
I see some companies advertise inside composters. Generally, I think the idea comes with lots of smells. Some advertise tight lids to seal in the smell, but it still has to be cleaned from time to time. It isn't only that, but we really want to introduce molds and mildew into our kitchens? Would anybody want to clean those parts in their dishwasher?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Our collection company provides a bin for a combination of yard and food waste. We tried saving the food waste to put in there when they only collect once a week, but there are big problems with it - stink, mold, bugs. We went back to using the garbage disposal in the sink, or the garbage.
The rats and roaches are going to love this. Instead of having to rummage through tons of debris to find food, now the food is going to be concentrated in containers, that lets face it, people have a hard enough time actually getting things in a dumpster, are going to be misused. In areas with a high population density, these compost bins are going to stink like no tomorrow. The scraps can't be in plastic bags, only paper which doesn't hold back moisture. Bacteria will be breeding like crazy. I'm all for leaving the world a better place, but there is a big difference between recycling something like a soda can, and handling organic waste in various stages of decomposition. What's next, we stop using a toilet and go back to collecting "night soil" so that it can be dropped in the compost bin? What about all of the animal waste that we are required to pick up?
Honestly, I think that's overthinking something that's as simple as dividing waste into three separate bins.
"Just go along, George. Just go along."-- Jerry Seinfeld at the Soup Nazi's place.
Ask yourself "Why?".. and then collect info, if you are info impoverished, in order to make an informed decision
How did they over run the country in 1939 in just two weeks?...They marched in backwards and told them they were leaving....It's happening here now, too.
I do not support city wide composting projects. A lot of the composting people are social justice types who need jobs and so they twist politics into it. It is framed like a Composting vs/ The City, war. Or like a Composters vs/ the Non-Composters, war.
The microbes are not complaining. The banana peels are not complaining. The peanut shells and the flies and the fungus are not complaining. The only element of the composting process that is going nuts are these college educated environmental warriors.
I guess they need jobs so they build these programs that they think other people should also be doing but on the whole it's vastly un-necessary. Actually, landfills are likely healthier for the environment having that organic material that compost projects aim to collect.
Even in dense urban areas like New York, people can figure it out without having biology "social workers" jumping in to teach everybody something as simple as composting. Never before in history did compost have anything to do with social justice politics until these genius' came around to disrupt everything.
It's also insulting to the people in the hood to suggest that their communities cannot figure out how to compost if they really wanted to. It's an insult. Many outer boroughs of NYC already have community gardens established. Keep it in those gardens. Keep it to yourself. Don't force it upon anybody.
Last edited by SubjectBook; 07-12-2020 at 02:56 PM..
"Just go along, George. Just go along."-- Jerry Seinfeld at the Soup Nazi's place.
Ask yourself "Why?".. and then collect info, if you are info impoverished, in order to make an informed decision
How did they over run the country in 1939 in just two weeks?...They marched in backwards and told them they were leaving....It's happening here now, too.
Let's not confused sorting refuse into three separate bins with a moral or philosophical issue. There are more important things to worry about.
This is an odd thing to even give a second thought.
The people enacting this "universal recycling law" practice selectively dishonest science. This law is a total diss to the sane and traditional people of Vermont. You really think Vermonters don't know how to compost?
Again, you have a bunch of college educated youngsters that were taught dishonest science and they need jobs so they build these weird government programs deemed essential only by themselves.
This composting thing is a political move towards universal health care and universal wage laws. =Socialism
Again, landfills are a lot healthier for the environment keeping the organic material that these programs are planning to remove.
Let's not confused sorting refuse into three separate bins with a moral or philosophical issue. There are more important things to worry about.
This is an odd thing to even give a second thought.
Where are these bins located? In your garage, around back by the fence, what about people who live in high rise buildings? Again, a bunch of cans sitting for a week in my garage is one thing, having rotting food sitting in there is another.
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