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THE DIRT THE NEW YORK CITY COMPOSTING PROJECT, HOSTED AT QUEENS BOTANICAL GARDEN, GIVES THE COMMUNITY A CHANCE TO POSITIVELY AFFECT THE ENVIRONMENT BY PUTTING THEIR FOOD WASTE BACK INTO THE EARTH INSTEAD OF IN A LANDFILL.
by Rebecca Williams
T
he earthy scent of oranges and sawdust swept through the air at Queens Botanical Garden (QBG) on a Monday morning in March. Volunteers and staff gathered around a pile of food waste and scraps, chopped it to bits with shovels and laughed. The group became a community, centered around their sense of accomplishment and their passion for bettering New York’s environment. "They come together because of their interest in working outside,” said Chelsea Encababian, QBG’s compost project manager. “They come together because of their interest in climate change issues, trying to revitalize soils, just wanting to have fun.” Although composting can be fun, the environmental and fiscal effects of mass food waste are not. According to a study published in the American Journal of Agriculture Economics, the average American household wastes 31.9% of their food, estimated to have a total cost of $240 billion or $1,866 per household. The food waste doesn’t solely extend to households, but to companies as well. The same study found that 72 billion pounds of food are wasted before it’s even sold because of appearance, irregular size or any damage that occurred during shipping. Many Americans don’t think much about food waste or its consequences. Banana peels and eggshells being tossed into the kitchen trash after breakfast is not unusual and often not given a second thought. However, those scraps don’t just decompose in a landfill. Food waste emits methane, a greenhouse gas that accounts for 30% of global warming according to the United Nations
Environment Programme. This air pollutant causes one million premature deaths per year. These statistics may seem overwhelming and intimidating, but that’s where composting comes in. “It’s kind of hard to grapple with the levity of such an issue,” said Encababian. “And what’s so powerful about composting is that it is a real, tangible and also short term way that you can make a huge impact
“IT MAKES MY TRASH MUCH LESS SMELLY. I WOULD DEFINITELY RECOMMEND IT TO OTHERS.” - Mika Hawley Volunteer
in your community and divert food scraps from landfills.” Composting breaks down waste using an aerobic process, which greatly reduces harmful methane production. Food waste creates gas it decomposes no matter the method. But, by exposing the waste to oxygen during the aerobic process, you can PULSE 34
decrease the methane levels and increase the carbon dioxide levels. Methane is 28 to 36 times more harmfull than carbon dioxide to our atmosphere, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In a landfill, food waste decomposes in an anaerobic process. This means no oxygen is introduced and the waste suffocates, producing methane and warming our planet. Landfills account for 14.1% of all human-related methane emissions. By composting, not only can we greatly reduce our methane emissions, but also we can save resources. According to the EPA, enough water and energy to supply 50 million homes goes into a year of food waste in the U.S. Composting can also assist the quality of our soil. Rick Carr, the farm director and previously the compost production specialist at Rodale Institute, works on a 333-acre research farm where waste is turned to compost for the soil. “We are reducing our need for synthetic fertilizers, which are very costly to produce and have their own environmental impact," said Carr. "We don’t have to use the synthetic fertilizers like nitrogen and phosphorus and potassium as much or at all." Queens Botanical Garden emphasizes a similar “closed-loop cycle,” where all horticulture waste from the gardens, along with food waste from community members, is used in the compost. Some of that compost is then reused in the garden’s soil as a fertilizer, while the rest of the compost is distributed to the com-