By Michelle Carnevale, President of 11th Hour Racing
It’s that time of the year again, the holiday season! A time full of family, gifts, and incredible food. But amidst the celebration, there’s an uncomfortable truth that often gets ignored.
For our planet, the holiday season creates an estimated 25% increase in household waste – which equates to around one million extra tons every single week between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day in the U.S. alone.
Let’s put that into perspective. That’s the waste weight equivalent of around one million elephants, 38 Titanics, three Empire State buildings, or topsoil for 13,330 soccer fields. No matter how you visualize it, that’s an enormous amount of waste choking our landfills and damaging our ocean.
There are plenty of familiar reasons why this happens. Maybe you got a little too enthusiastic in the kitchen and cooked more than needed. Or perhaps you simply overlooked those leftovers tucked away in the back of the fridge. And who hasn’t been let down by that friend who promised to show up, but canceled last minute after you’d already stocked up on food?
Give Back This Holiday Season
If you find yourself in this situation over the holidays, remember that options are available. The first step is to offer your edible food to a local food bank or organization that accepts food donations. For all the waste that can’t be avoided, you can start transforming it into something that also gives back – composting.
Composting, or nature’s way of recycling as I like to refer to it, is a simple, eco-friendly solution. By collecting food scraps and other organic materials like garden waste in a compost bin, you’re letting nature take its course. What you’re left with is nutrient-rich soil that benefits the planet in surprising ways – including improving the health of our ocean for generations to come.
And with an estimated 30-40% of food currently wasted in the U.S., composting is a really simple way to make a big impact.
Did You Know, Composting Also Benefits The Ocean?
The link between ocean health and composting might not be immediately obvious, but it’s beyond any doubt.
When food is thrown into a landfill, it doesn’t just vanish. It undergoes anaerobic decomposition which produces methane – a potent greenhouse gas more than 28 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. Methane is extremely damaging when it comes to climate change as the ocean is forced to absorb much of this heat in an effort to cool our planet. The impact of this is felt in communities across the globe in the form of hurricanes, sea-levels rising, even more frequent and intense heat waves, droughts, and flooding.
Even more, when ocean temperatures rise, fish are pushed into deeper waters, coral reefs start dying, and marine ecosystems fall apart – affecting species that are crucial to our everyday lives.
By composting, we have the power to cut down on methane from landfills and therefore, help protect the ocean. This process turns waste into nutrient-rich soil which helps absorb stormwater runoff and keeps local water cleaner. Plus, healthy soil promotes plant growth and helps store carbon, which in turn helps combat ocean acidification.
Just like with warming waters, an acidic ocean has serious impacts—making it hard for shellfish like oysters and scallops to grow their shells.
After working in ocean conservation for years, I’ve only recently come to appreciate how important healthy soil is for a healthy ocean. The two are completely connected.
Time To Drive Real Change
If we’re serious about meeting the United States 2030 Food Loss and Waste Reduction Goal of cutting food loss and waste in half by 2030, composting needs to be part of the solution.
And as Americans begin to learn more about the benefits of composting, our cities are beginning to develop infrastructure to support it. Just as curbside recycling became standard practice after overflowing landfills forced change; there are already now some great compost collection services for homes and schools to get started.
If building your compost pile at home isn’t an option, it really can be as simple as putting your food scraps in a composting bin and setting it out for curbside collection – just like trash and recycling.
Start Your Composting Journey This Holiday Season
It’s easier than you think. All you need is a bucket and some enthusiasm! Here’s a simple checklist to follow:
- Decide if you want to compost at home or have your waste collected by a compost collection service. You can find many collection services in the Northeast United States at 11thHourRacing.org or a map of national composting initiatives on ilsr.org.
- Choose your waste storage solution. This could either be a specialist bin or tumbler for home composting, a DIY homemade pile in the garden, or a secure bucket with a lid for storing waste before it’s collected.
- Learn about what can and can’t be composted. Fruit and vegetable waste is a safe place to start!
- If you’re building a pile at home, don’t forget to balance your green (grass clippings, fruit and veg scraps) and brown (leaves, twigs, sawdust) material.
- Be patient and have fun!
Michelle Carnevale is the President of 11th Hour Racing, leading the organization’s programmatic work to mobilize sports, maritime and coastal communities with an innovative approach to inspire solutions for the ocean.
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