Compost and Climate Change

Introduction 

Everyone has heard of composting. We’ve all seen the commercials, presentations, and videos begging us to correctly sort our food waste. But why? What is it exactly that makes composting so important?

            The truth is, there is not just one reason that makes composting essential. So many environmental aspects could be improved by taking a few extra minutes to properly sort your trash.

Supporting Agriculture

            When you properly sort food waste, sending only the correct items to compost facilities, that waste can be reused. Composting is an important cycle in which food waste is recycled into soil (i.e. turned into a natural fertilizer) and then used to help grow new food, which can also later be composted. This practice has long helped us to produce efficient waste that is never truly wasted. If you compost in your local area, you could very likely be supporting local farms by providing them with the soil necessary to grow their crops.

Climate Change           

i. Food Waste’s Role

Other than completing an efficient food waste cycle, there are many other reasons to compost. One main reason has to do with methane production. Many people believe that the only downside to composting is that food was wasted, but that is simply not true.

When food waste is tightly packed with plastics and other items that cannot decompose, like it is when it is thrown in the landfill, there is not enough oxygen to allow the waste to decompose correctly. Because of this, the food waste produces methane, a greenhouse gas.

Greenhouse gasses are a main contributor to climate change because they trap excess heat inside the earth’s atmosphere. If more people composted, the methane emissions from decomposing food would decrease and it would help to slow the rapid rate of climate change. It may not seem like a lot, but taking the time to properly sort trash can have amazing effects.

ii. What is Climate Change?

            Many people have heard of climate change, but do we really know what it is? Climate change is a phenomenon caused by greenhouse gasses. These are gasses like carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, and water vapor. When gasses like these are released into the atmosphere, they are trapped there.

While greenhouse gasses are naturally occurring, and while the atmosphere will always experience the greenhouse effect, human activities have worsened it especially recently in time. Any fossil fuel burning activity, like burning gas in cars, coal in trains, and getting energy for nuclear power plants, releases carbon dioxide into the air. Other gasses like methane and more are released from farming, livestock, landfills, and aerosol cans. Mining is also a practice that can contribute to the greenhouse effect.

            iii. Effects of Climate Change   

            Even if you weren’t previously aware of what climate change was, I’m sure most people have heard of all the disastrous effects that climate change displays. Many famous ones include temperatures rising and glaciers melting. While these are important, climate change is changing so much more.

It causes all sorts of abnormal weather patterns, not just heating up the world. Climate change can look like extreme heat or extreme cold because it changes the polar jet stream that separates different temperature zones. Climate change also leads to more intense weather and storms due to the fact that warmer air holds more moisture.

            Another issue is that climate change leads to sea level rise because heat melts sea ice and thermal expansion causes water molecules to expand. Sea level rise threatens many properties and towns along coasts around the world. Flood damage can also have similar effects and will be more prominent due to the new extreme weather conditions. As you can see, climate change is an intense problem, and one without an easy fix.

 Conclusion

            While climate change is daunting, and there is likely no way to undo what has already been done, we can strive to reduce future emissions and ensure that the problem won’t worsen. It may seem like sorting food won’t make much of a difference, but if everyone made an effort to compost, we could reduce methane emissions and hopefully take important steps to reducing the human impact on our environment. We can’t keep going on like we are now, but you could make a difference. You don’t have to be an expert, it all starts with effort!

By Brynn Marovich
9th Grade, Terra Linda High School, San Rafael, CA

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Resource Sources

Compost: From Your Kitchen to Marin Farms! - MSS Fall Newsletter 2022 - Marin Sanitary Service. 16 Sept. 2022, marinsanitaryservice.com/compost-from-your-kitchen-to-marin-farms-mss-fall-newsletter-2022/?cn-reloaded=1.

Denchak, Melissa. “Greenhouse Effect 101.” NRDC, 16 July 2019, www.nrdc.org/stories/greenhouse-effect-101#:~:text=The%20main%20gases%20responsible%20for.

“Greenhouse Effect | National Geographic Society.” Education.nationalgeographic.org, education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/greenhouse-effect/.

SB 1383 - Combating Climate Change through Composting! - MSS Fall Newsletter 2021 - Marin Sanitary Service. 6 Oct. 2021, marinsanitaryservice.com/sb-1383-combating-climate-change-through-composting-mss-fall-newsletter-2021/.