10 Reasons Why Composting is Better than Recycling
They are both important, but here’s why composting might deserve more focus than it usually gets.
We all know about recycling. It’s Environment 101 in kindergarten for being environmentally friendly. If nothing else, they say, thou shalt recycle. There’s been a lot of incredible reporting recently about problems in the recycling system, recycling commodities market, and even recyclability as a giant genius marketing ploy of manufacturers and the plastics industry. While recycling isn’t all it was cracked up to be when it comes to climate change and the environment, it is still important.
But I’m here to tell you that composting is all it’s cracked up to be and more. Here are 10 reasons why:
1. Composting is local.
The economics of recycling aren’t very good for many of our most commonly recycled materials, notably paper and plastic. In the United States and most other service-oriented economies, where there rarely is a local industry that can make use of these materials, the market to buy, process and reuse the material just isn’t strong. So where do all those plastic bottles you throw in the bin go? For decades, China handled the recycling of almost half of the world’s discarded materials, because its manufacturing sector was booming and needed these materials to feed it. In 2016, the U.S. alone exported 16 million tons of plastic, paper and metals to China.
Comparatively, nearly all compost is processed and re-sold within the same region that it originates. Some of that composting is done in people’s own yards but much of it is picked up just like recycling. From there it’s taken to an industrial composter and then it’s sold to local farms, landscaping companies, or gardeners. As we discussed in a previous blog post, Oakland CA compost is processed just one county over and then re-sold locally, meaning that most of that compost probably travels less than 100 miles end to end. Composting locally means fewer emissions from transport and more local jobs.
2. Composting happens.
Remember all that recycling material that was shipped thousands of miles to China? Turns out a lot of that was contaminated with other materials that made it difficult and expensive to recycle. Recycling often is contaminated with non-recyclable material — occasionally toxic material — because of both sloppy recycling habits and the masses of different materials consumers encounter that provide little indication of what can and can’t be sorted and recycled by each local sorting facility. For instance, the little triangle with arrows we’ve all come to associate with recyclability actually is little indication of that item being recyclable at all! On the receiving end in China, similar confusion, mismanagement, and changing values of each material commodity would often lead to environmental contamination of land and water there.
In 2019, China had had enough of our contaminated recycling shipments and banned most of it through its National Sword Policy. Compost has contamination problems too. But because composting isn’t generally disposed of “single-stream” there are usually fewer issues, less toxic contaminants, and it can generally be removed up to 98% purity to allow for effective resale a few months later to local buyers.
3. Compost is Black Gold.
It’s easy for composting to stay local because there is a viable local end market. And there’s a local end market because compost is just so darn valuable. You may have heard that compost helps boost growth of plants by adding beneficial nutrients to the soil. In turn, the plants that grow in it are not only growing bigger and faster, but also producing more nutrient-rich produce!
4. Composting is drought and landslide insurance.
You likely haven’t heard that compost also helps soil retain moisture. This benefit is especially critical for places like dry and often drought-stricken Central California, which happens to be the fruit and vegetable basket of our country. Because of its plant-boosting and moisture-retaining qualities, compost also helps prevent erosion.
5. Compost is a GHG sink.
In a previous blog, we talked about how sending organic matter to landfills is a major contributor to climate change and results in methane emissions. Methane has more than twenty times the global warming impact as its more well-known counterpart, carbon dioxide. But when organic matter is composted (an aerobic rather than anaerobic process that’s explained nicely here) it acts as greenhouse gas sink (something that sucks up and stores the gas from the atmosphere) rather than source.
6. Composting can make you waste less organics.
This one can be controversial. The theory goes, that by separating out all the compostable organics — whether its all the paper towels you use for quick convenience or those strawberries you forgot in the back of the fridge and have to throw out — makes you more aware of the volume you are wasting. Seeing it all stacked up in the bin can help you rethink how much food and other organic products you are using and think of better ways to cut back.
On the other hand, one or two studies, reflecting the psychology phenomenon often referred to as the “limited pool of worry,” show the opposite: tell someone their food leftovers will go to compost instead of landfill and they actually leave more leftovers. This happens with plastic waste too, where-in people’s guilt is assuaged by the idea that the item is being recycled and then end up using more plastic. Don’t fall into this phycological trap — reducing organic waste is important regardless of if you’re composting!
7. Supports local farms, local jobs.
Another benefit of the entire composting cycle being local is that it naturally boosts local farms and creates local jobs. Composting plants have been shown to create more jobs than other disposal facilities, such as landfills or incineration sites. Similarly, locally produced compost, often produced with the support of public funds through municipal services, provides local farmers with access to high-quality fertilizer at low cost. That means more happy farmers producing healthful foods, that you can then enjoy at your local farm-to-table restaurant.
8. Reduces your trash fees.
As we talked about in our last blog, most cities and counties with smart policies for waste management have in place fee structures that encourage sending less to landfill by charging more for trash pickup (usually by volume or bin size) and less for composting and recycling. For instance, in Oakland the fee structure dictates that if you live in a single-family home, you will pay about $16 for collection of a 20-gallon compost bin but more than twice that — $44 — for the same size trash bin. So composting can save you money too.
9. Brings you closer to the earth.
We’re not exactly talking about this in the Mother Earth spiritual sense, though that’s got its place. Quite literally, composting helps bring you closer to earth and soil, as well as understand how food ends up on your table.
Like many modern day systems, the division of labor can add efficiency but lessen our exposure and understanding of how basic life systems work. As we become experts in ever-narrower fields, we are less connected to the fundamentals of staying alive. Many of us do not know the first thing about how to grow our own food or often even what part of the plant it comes from or where it’s grown.
By composting, we are made aware of one more part of the food system and how we collectively nourish ourselves.
10. Makes worms happy.
Ok, you may not naturally care a whole lot about worms. But you should. Worms are amazing creatures.
They can eat anywhere from half to their full body weight in food daily! And that food is — you guessed it — compost. Worms eat degrading organic matter and ‘poop’ out nutrient soil to feed our plants. Worms help plants in other ways too. Since plants need both oxygen and water, the subterranean pathways or “pores” that worms create allow plant roots to get more oxygen and water, helping them grow healthy and strong. It also helps plant roots to penetrate deeper!
Finally, worms are an important source of food for birds, including the great bald eagle when they haven’t had much luck rustling up a mouse or two. Bald Eagles represent the United State of America. So, if you like America you should like worms, and compost. See how that works?
Reduce & Reuse
Remember, when it comes to waste management, one should always start with reducing and reusing before either recycling or composting. Don’t use what you don’t need (I’m looking at you single-use plastic water bottle drinker) and think if you can make creative use of an old item before disposing of it (hello last night’s leftover rice now fried under an egg for breakfast).
But the next time you look at that banana peel or used paper towel, think “what riches I hold!” and place them carefully in the green bin.
