LOS ANGELES -- The howls on social media have been fierce since California started mandating that food waste stay out of garbage destined for the landfill. But here's a confession from a longtime composter: Putting food waste in a separate kitchen receptacle is a no-brainer that actually feels good because it's such an easy way to improve the world.
See, our landfills are getting full, and organic materials such as kitchen scraps and yard trimmings make up about 50% of the state's landfill "trash," according to CalRecycle, creating enough global-warming methane gas to make landfills California's third largest methane source.
All those organic materials creating problems in our landfills are actually a misunderstood asset that can easily be converted to compost — the miracle soil amendment that rebuilds our depleted soils while nourishing our plants. All we have to do is scrape our plates into a compost bucket instead of the trash bin.
