Composting to combat climate change

“It’s a true Rumpelstiltskin story. Who knew we could literally take a rotting vegetable and turn it into black gold.”

Brenda Platt is the Co-Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. She’s the Project Director for their Composting for Community project.  She says that there is huge potential to increase composting in the US and as a result, there is a huge potential to reduce the impact of climate change.

Brenda Platt was in Boulder recently visiting the Eco-Cycle center. Eco-Cycle recently released a Stop Trashing the Climate report which shows that “Significantly decreasing waste disposed in landfills and incinerators will reduce greenhouse gas emissions the equivalent to closing 21% of U.S. coal-fired power plants.” The report also shows that  “Landfills are the largest source of anthropogenic methane emissions in the U.S., and the impact of landfill emissions in the short term is grossly underestimated — methane is 72 times more potent than CO2 over a 20-year time frame.” Methane is actually 84 times more potent than CO2 in the short-term, according to the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change.

The City of Boulder is only diverting 32% of its waste from the landfill through recycling and composting. https://bouldercolorado.gov/lead/zero-waste