...is Another Man's Pay
Dirt
From: Alison Singer, Worldwatch
Institute, ENN.com
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| Westerly student do their part, collecting used cooking oils for conversion into biodiesel |
It is, unfortunately, society's nature to discard the unwanted or forgotten. This tendency is on display across the globe, from slums of mega-cities to undernourished children in rural villages to the ugly endangered creatures that never receive attention.
Nowhere, however, is
this tendency more apparent than in our trash. We accumulate so much unwanted
stuff that each city-dweller throws away an average of 1.2 kilograms of
municipal solid waste per day. An individual's trash puts all those unwanted
items on display, whether it is an old love letter, a broken glass, or a
half-eaten ham and cheese sandwich.
;/Pay Dirt, a new report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), outlines the benefits of that half-eaten sandwich. The report outlines the environmental and economic benefits of developing composting programs in Maryland.
Composting is simply
the decomposition of organic matter. It occurs naturally, but it can also be
controlled and accelerated with human assistance. The end product — compost —
has a variety of uses and is particularly valuable as a soil conditioner.
Economically, composting
can provide a surprising number of jobs. Compost stays within the local
community and thus prevents outsourcing of the associated jobs.
On a per-ton
basis, composting, including mulching and natural wood waste recycling, employs
two times more workers than landfilling, and four times more workers than
incineration.
On a dollar-per-capital-investment basis, composting may sustain
as many as three times more jobs than landfilling and 17 times more jobs than
incineration. If the 1 million tons of organic matter currently wasted in
Maryland were composted, almost 1400 jobs could be created.
Environmentally,
composting can contribute at a variety of different scales. Backyard gardeners
have long composted their own waste and then reintroduced the compost into
their gardens, increasing soil productivity.
At a larger scale, composting can
help protect the Chesapeake Bay watershed — it reduces stormwater runoff by
holding up to 20 times its weight in water; binds heavy metals, pesticides,
herbicides, reducing their leachability and absorption by plants; when added to
soil compost can reduce contamination by urban pollutants by 60-95 percent.
Composting also means
less waste is sent to landfills and incinerators, which translates to reduced
methane emissions from landfills and lower potentially dangerous fumes from
incineration.
In addition, because of its high water retention, compost helps
prevent soil erosion, and is being used on steep roadway embankments and as
part of the growing trend of green infrastructure, which includes green roofs,
bioswales, rain gardens, and vegetated retaining walls. ILSR argues that
composting offers Maryland the opportunity to become a leader in green
infrastructure and provide a model for other states to follow.
Continue reading
at Worldwatch Institute.
For more information,
read the report Pay Dirt.