It’s easy to toss our banana peels and apple cores into the trash and just assume the scraps will melt away into the soil once they hit the landfill. But throwing organic waste like food into the garbage is actually an inefficient way to dispose of it.

In doing so, we waste resources and miss out on some incredible possibilities. Through anaerobic digestion, Renergy turns ordinary food waste into power while reducing harmful emissions released into the environment.

Here are a few reasons why we shouldn’t toss food into landfills.

It increases greenhouse gas emissions. More food reaches landfills than any other single material in municipal solid waste. Food is a significant source of methane gas, which has 21x the global warming potential of CO2! If we diverted food waste from landfills, it would be like removing 2 million cars from the road.

It’s a waste of resources. Nothing ever decomposes completely when it’s buried in the ground, not even organic waste like food scraps. It just sits there untreated and creates loads of nasty fumes. Instead, we could be turning organic waste into clean, renewable energy through anaerobic digestion.

It’s a waste of money. Ten percent of the total U.S. energy budget goes toward food production and we waste between 30 to 40 percent of the food supply…that’s something like $165 billion each year that we’re basically just throwing away.

Right now only 5 percent of food is being diverted from landfills. If we could anaerobically digest 50 percent of the country’s food waste, we could create enough electricity to power 2.5 million homes for a year! Talk to your local commissioners and find out how your city is handling waste. Renergy can help.

Sources:

Compostingcouncil.org

Epa.gov