Food waste accounts for a significant portion of urban waste exports. Americans tend to be a lot more wasteful of their food, and so lots of otherwise recyclable material gets sent out to landfills. This is an issue, as it leads to the release of methane from landfills. Food wastes don’t decompose well in landfills, so they just sit there and release greenhouse gasses. To limit this effect, and to free up space in landfills, you should compost what you can.
Items that can be composted are usually plant based foods. These include leftover fruits and vegetables, skins, leaves, and coffee grounds. To learn how you can compost at home, look at there two videos.
Stephen Orr guides you through the at-home composting process:
Lucy Biggers leads you through her journey to explore the composting process in New York City: