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by whymauri 1778 days ago
My house recently started vigorously composting. I can't help but wonder how many centuries of daily composting we would need to offset the climate impact of the plastic composting bin, composable bags, and composting infrastructure. Feels good, but no impact. Sigh.
2 comments

Yeah, I don't know if it's true (which is a separate problem in itself!), but I was always taught in school _not_ to recycle because the infrastructure around consumer recycling (outside of large cities) did significantly more harm than good.
The truth is 'it's complicated' and that cuts both ways. If you have the time, assessing what is and isn't worth doing based on your location is a better approach than just blanket recycling=bad or recycling=good.

For example, at-home recycling of organic waste by composting? Excellent. Municipal glass and metal recycling? Generally a net positive. Plastics recycling in the boonies? More of an energy waste than useful, in many cases the 'least worst' place for that material is landfill.

The other end of the consumption pipeline is where we should be focused IMO. If we nail that, the tail-end stuff becomes a much smaller issue as a matter of course.

The impact will be felt on your garden yields though. Vermipost might as well be a performance enhancing drug.