Should You Mix Garbage With Your Trash?

Why not? Egg shells, banana peels and leftovers are biodegradable, so they’ll just go into the landfill and decompose, right?

Probably not.  Are you aware that because of federal regulation landfills are equipped with liners to prevent any food scraps from touching the soil?  So instead it decomposes, releasing methane gasses that municipalities recapture as an energy source.  This is a good thing because this flow of gasses can continue for decades until exhausted.  The downside is that these gasses must be carefully managed, which requires money and manpower.  Plus, the decomposing process allows some contaminants to escape into the atmosphere.  Which isn’t a good thing.

So how much garbage is in trash?  For example, the Miramar Landfill in San Diego receives 910,000 tons of waste material every year, and 20% of that is garbage.  How do they know?  Well, they had people sort the material by hand.  I know, ugh!

Tossed garbage has other uses, and a beneficial one is creating compost.  That’s why cities like San Diego are undertaking educational programs in an effort to get citizens to create backyard compost piles. That’s the one sure way to make sure biodegradable scraps go back into the soil making it more productive for residential flower beds and vegetable gardens.

Trash can be limited or recycled.  Garbage can be composted.  Both are much better for the environment than simply dumping in a landfill.  It’s up to everyone to do their part.