According to the US Department of Agriculture Americans throw away more than 25% of the food we prepare which amounts to 96 billion pounds of waste each year or 12% of the total waste generated by the country.
Composting is an extremely effective way to eliminate some of this addition to the waste stream. Compost, the rich, earthy result of nature’s own recycling process, transforms ordinary food scraps into a highly effective soil enricher, can prevent soil erosion and actually cleans pollutants from the earth.
Most cities currently have recycling programs to reduce the waste of plastics, glass and aluminum. Some cities are taking this a step further and are adding citywide composting to their recycling programs. San Francisco and Toronto were the first two North American cities to start large scale composting programs, but many cities like New York, Chicago, Ottawa, Denver and Minneapolis are currently working towards implementing similar programs.
The San Francisco program provides green bins for food waste to be placed in. The waste in these bins is collected (along with the garbage and recycling) and shipped to 3 local organic farms where the decaying process is sped up by oxygen and the resulting product is used as fertilizer. These organic farms then sell their products to locals in theory creating a closed loop system.
Could something like this work in Charleston???
The average South Carolinian generates 6.4 pounds of trash a day, which is 1.8 pounds more than the national average. The Charleston recycling program requires little or no effort (you don’t even have to sort your recyclables!), yet only about 30% of Charlestonians recycle. Also Charleston County does not accept many kinds of plastics. Laziness (both by citizens and the County) is the word that comes to mind when I think of recycling in Charleston. In my opinion it will take a long time and a big change of outlook for any kind of composting program to be established in Charleston, although it could make a big difference here with the large amount of waste we South Carolinians produce.
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