Food Waste—such a small phrase with such an environmental, and social impact. Food waste happens everywhere in America, from hospitals, to schools, to the home, and to supermarkets. In fact, Americans waste 92 billion pounds of food every year, that’s equivalent to 145 billion meals. When does food waste become too much? And where does composting help reduce this problem?

Most Americans do understand where their food comes from, either from small scale to large scale farming, but, most Americans don’t understand what happens to their food after they are finished with it. Food that is thrown away ends up in landfills, where they often sit, in un-moving piles, and the hostile environment keeps important microbes and decomposers, like fungus, and earthworms away. When these decomposers can’t grow or live due to the lack of oxygen, anaerobic bacteria break down the food. The problem is that these bacteria release methane, a greenhouse gas that is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Greenhouse gases are any gas that fill the atmosphere, and trap the sun’s rays, making the global temperature rise. In fact, according to NASA, the global temperature average has grown by 1 degree Celsius, or 2 degrees Fahrenheit, that is around .11 degrees Fahrenheit every decade. The most dangerous part of this, is that most of this temperature change has happened in the last 40 years, making it almost impossible for anything to adapt to these rising temperatures. To many people, 1 degree Celsius doesn’t seem that much, but according to Climate .gov, if temperatures rise about 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold, the impact on the climate is irreversible, with the chances of severe weather rising, ice caps melting, and ecosystem collapse rising.

Maryland, despite being a small state, doesn’t shy away from being wasteful, the state produces around 13,931,609 tons of waste per year, that’s roughly 3 tons of waste from each person per year. Crazy enough, the amount of waste Maryland generates is equivalent to throwing away 266 Titanics every year. All that waste from one small state. Maryland generates roughly 1.86 million pounds, that’s 930 tons, of compostable material, and 927,926 tons of food waste, that’s equivalent to around 18 Titanic in weight. Interestingly enough, 95% of waste produced in Fredrick country doesn’t even stay in this state, in fact, 96% of the entire state of Maryland’s waste is sent to states like Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina. Shipping this amount of waste is costful, costing more than 7 million dollars a year to transport all this waste.

But, there is a way to keep food scraps out of landfills, and its composting. So what is compost? In simple terms, compost is a mix of natural occurring, most often plant material or food scraps, which is then broken down by organisms into a form of fertilizer for plants. Gardners, plant parents, and farmers all use compost to help their crops grow, and still maintain their organic certified label. The difference between food scraps being composted and being just thrown away, is that when composted, microbes, like fungus, and insects are able to break down the compost, unlike in landfills, where anaerobic bacteria break it down, and release methane in the process. By using compost, we can use old, moldy food, to grow new food, and it’s a quite sustainable practice.

Gabriel Berkey, a sophomore at Brunswick High school, commented on the bins, saying, “It keeps food out of landfills…it gets turned into fertilizer, we learned about it in Ms. Ruby’s.” Later during the interview, when asked about his opinion on the program, Keep lunch out of Landfills, and the use of Compost Bins at our school, he said, “I eat all my food, but yeah, I think it’s a good idea to help the environment and stuff, it’s always nice.”

Meanwhile, a freshman at Brunswick High, didn’t initially know what the green bins were for, nor the intent behind them, after an explanation, and a few more questions, opinion was given.

“I think it’s useful, I think it’s good for the environment, but I don’t think it’s for scale, it might be more useful at larger schools who actually use the bins.” A few more opinions were given, and they were along the lines of the two already given, but they were all positive.

Here at Brunswick High School, one teacher is trying to help curb the amount of food that is being wasted, and food scraps that end up in Maryland’s landfills. One way this is being done is setting up compost collection bins around the school, where the uneaten food is placed inside, to avoid being thrown into the trash, and ending up in landfills. These bins, once filled, will be sorted, and then collected by a 3rd party, and will then be composted, saving such scraps from the rubbish bins.

Another thing our school is doing is the share table, where students can put un-opened milks, cheese sticks, carrots, chips, and other various items that students wish not to consume. Students can take anything they wish from the table, if you want the milk and you’ll drink it, then you can check the shared table fridge, the entire point is to keep unused food out of the bin, and give it a new life to those who would actually consume it.

Mrs. Ruby, the Chemistry teacher at Brunswick High School, was the teacher who founded both programs at the school, with the mission to divert food from landfills.

“I believe that we should practice what we teach and do all that we can to help the planet. When you look at environmental impacts and the complexity of the problems it can be overwhelming. Start with the easiest, most impactful and then expand your initiatives.”

She talked about how the program started, and how easy it is for students to participate. “Tap it trash it seemed pretty easy. Food scraps, tissues and napkins can all be diverted from landfill where organic waste becomes methane gas as compared to composting organics which become carbon dioxide, which is less harmful to the environment.”