Photo: HotRot industrial composting system
One grocery chain’s pilot program kept more than 650 tons of food waste out of the landfills in just four months.
Most grocery store waste comes from produce, which is easily compostable. Hey, if you dump it in a landfill, it’ll eventually turn into soil but this way the compost gets used. Plus, it’s cost-effective, or at least cost-neutral for the stores.
If you dump it in the landfill, it WILL eventually turn into soil– but (1) producing methane in an anaerobic reaction rather than CO2 as in composting and (2) contaminated with hydrocarbons, heavy metals, PVCs and whatever else gets dumped alongside it– essentially useless.
We ask our local markets for their “dead” produce to feed to our animals. Sadly, some markets (and some produce managers) prefer to dump their waste produce rather than give it away.
BTW, we also get waste food from a local restuarant and a local butcher. This keeps even more food out of the landfills. For anyone who keeps poultry– or even goats or dogs– waste food can be a cost-effective animal food supplement, while performing a public service by keeping it out of landfills.