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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Come on, my elderly parents in California have been doing this for years, it's not that hard. You can put newspaper or paper bags if there's leaking, but I use these bags and carry out every couple of days and don't have that issue.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B094MYC6MX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If you can't do it for yourself, t[b]hen do it for your kids.[/b][/quote]

I’m not anti-composting — I’ve had my own compost pile for most of my adult life. But this is a classic example of something that feels “green” but does t actually do anything for the environment. There’s no way that the energy and materials involved with manufacturing special little compostable bags, distributing them, manufacturing special containers, having trucks drive around and pick up waste & deliver it to a central facility, etc, is more environmentally friendly than simply putting that relatively small amount of waste in the garbage that will be picked up anyway and sending the landfill, and letting it decompose there. If you really care about this, make your own compost pile and use it in your garden. [/quote]

If you'd done any research about the Arlington program, you'd know that the compost facility is actually on the way that the trucks drive anyway. And if you actually even live in Arlington, I'm surprised that you don't know that we don't have landfills here--our trash is incinerated. [/quote]

LOL then. Your trash is incinerated, but you’re “green” because you’re composting food waste?  It doesn’t matter if it’s “on the way,” hauling and producing infrastructure to do all this still takes energy and resources. For what, a small fraction less stuff to be incinerated (that, by the way, is a lot less toxic than the stuff that is being burned)? [/quote]

Here’s where the Arlington material goes. It’s just a big outdoor compost pile in Manassas. They don’t mention any controls for methane produced by the composting process. The incineration facility is in Alexandria. That’s not “on the way.”

https://www.freestatefarmsva.com/about-freestate-farms

https://www.covanta.com/where-we-are/our-facilities/alexandria

Still looking for more studies that have even looked at this, but this Canadian study concluded that there’s less GHG impact from sending food scraps through a sink food waste disposer.

https://www.sustain.ubc.ca/sites/default/files/2012-04_Organic%20waste%20management%20-%20garburators%20vs%20composting_McKenzie.pdf

The literature consistently indicates that use of FWDs/municipal sewage system is a preferable organic waste management strategy to a centralized composting program from the perspective of global warming potential. This is due to (1) the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the pickup, transport and processing of organic waste in a centralized composting process and (2) the ability of wastewater treatment plants to create usable energy from sewage sludge.

***

5.1 SUMMARY
This report qualitatively evaluated the environmental impacts associated with two organic waste management strategies for multi-family homes in the City of Vancouver: a centralized composting program and the use of food waste disposers (FWDs) and the municipal sewage system. Environmental impacts were assessed using both peer-reviewed literature and grey literature, which included reports and case studies. Evaluation focussed on five main environmental categories: diversion potential, global warming potential, water use, useable products, and effluent/emissions.
The literature presented conflicting results. The strongest evidence in support of a centralized composting program was in terms of diversion potential and the eco-toxicity. The strongest evidence in support of FWD use and the municipal sewage system was the issue of acidification. The environmental impact categories of global warming potential (GWP), water usage and useable products did not provide as consistent or as clearly defined results.[/quote]

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