What should you do with your food scraps?
If you can't compost it, put your food waste in the trash instead of using the garbage disposal to save water and energy. Disposals use about 500,000 gallons of water per day in the United States (both in your sink and during sewage treatment).
If you put scraps into the garbage disposal it goes to water treatment facilities, and may go from there into nature where it's at least three times more likely to disrupt ecosystems (via algal blooms) than it would if it went to a landfill.
Food scraps make up at least 10% of space in our landfills and off-gas methane, a greenhouse gas, but water treatment workers may fish out waste and send it to the landfill anyway.
- In general, pitch it in the trash, but if you want to go deeper, find out if your local landfill or wastewater treatment facility captures methane (which food gives off as it decomposes). If it does and your local landfill does not, go with the garbage disposal.
- But seriously guys, compost.
I want this SoilSaver Classic Composter from Sam's Club, it costs around $40.
