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[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.

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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]

These are not dedicated trucks just for food waste.  We put it into the yard waste bins, which the county has been picking up for years now.  Pretty much zero extra resources after the initial distribution of buckets.[/quote]

If they are picking up a significant amount of food waste that used to go down the garbage disposer, &/or that used to be incinerated in Alexandria and moving it to Manassas (vs. the closer incinerator), yes, it does take more resources to move.  Even if they were driving around mostly empty yard waste trucks before, and don’t need any additional trucks or runs (which I seriously doubt), the additional weight alone would require more energy to move. It’s basic physics. Did you see the video of the composting facility? The massive concrete barriers and all the bulldozers, etc? They also have no mechanism for capturing the methane produced by the decomposition of the waste. Then people drive to the facility to pick up compost and/or the facility packages it up to be shipped somewhere for sale?

I’m all for composting at home — I love it for my garden — but just don’t pretend that you’re “saving the planet.”

This is just like Farmer’s Markets. You may want to buy vegetable from the Farmer’s Markets because you think they taste better, or you like the idea of small farms as a sort of romantic thing, go ahead, but it’s not “greener.” It’s incredibly inefficient from an energy consumption standpoint. [/quote]

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