[tash9]

Maybe I'm missing something but I've never understood the point of composting.

- It's a hassle.

- You can buy good compost for very little at the hardware store that's produced at industrial scales

- Landfill space is not a precious resource in most parts of the world

- Your garbage will still turn into compost, just in a landfill

Where is the upside?

edit b/c I don't know how to format things

[OkayPhysicist]

> Your garbage will still turn into compost, just in a landfill

This point is not actually true. Landfills are not built to optimize for decomposition, they're optimized for density. The high density leads to heavily anaerobic conditions below the surface, to the point where excavating a landfill can find shit like newspapers from decades ago.

Plus, composting makes more sense from a land use perspective. If you're exclusively taking compostables, and shipping out the compost, your land use limits your throughput, but for a landfill, your land use limits area under that curve, cumulative input. You fill up a landfill, then you have to make another one. They are, somewhat ironically, disposable.

[tash9]

But the volume of compostable material is small compared to the overall trash volume, right?

Aren't we talking about a negligible quantity relative to amount of effort and (potentially) negative sentiment amongst swing voters?

[OkayPhysicist]

I don't think so. Ever since my household started putting food waste in the ward waste bin instead of the trash bin, our trash bin has been mostly empty on any given week. A few scraps of single-use plastics that can't be recycled,

Of course, that's assuming that your recycling isn't also going into the landfill, which isn't a great assumption.

[convolvatron]

you can't use landfill as compost because its really quite contaminated

[smileysteve]

> Your garbage will still turn into compost, just in a landfill

It will compost, anaerobically, producing more methane and VOCs, and as they do, they create a sludge, that often picks up acid and other contaminants, which quick create leaks in landfills.

https://www.clf.org/blog/all-landfills-leak-and-our-health-a...

> The water that gets into landfill cells picks up contaminants from the waste and becomes “leachate.” What’s in the leachate depends on what’s in the landfill, but some chemicals can be counted on, such as volatile organic compounds, chloride, nitrogen, solvents, phenols, and heavy metals.

> The safeguards intended to prevent leachate from escaping a landfill cell – pipe collection systems in newer landfills and the plastic and clay liners mentioned above – fail over time. This toxic brew of “garbage coffee” leaks out of the landfill and seeps into groundwater – contaminating wells and waterbodies.

Anecdotally, 3 of 4 landfills in my area have ongoing leaks from leachate and now strictly police cardboard and other organic non household trash from the sites.

[tash9]

I would think heavy metals would be a much bigger issue wrt water contamination from a health point of view.

Not that the anaerobic sludge is great, but I would rather see a bigger push to recycle used electronics.

As far as methane, am in total agreement there. It's probably even better to incinerate paper products (if you are not in a subtropical region like LA).

[InSteady]

Counterpoints:

Local supply chains are nice and tidy from an economic and GHG perspective.

Landfill fees are expensive, and the city can sometimes sell the compost, use it themselves, and offer excess to citizens to come pick up by the wheel barrel full.

Compost really isn't that cheap, at least not at my hardware store. Especially if you are filling more than the odd pot or two.

In most cities with composting programs, you can opt out. (Also, it's not that big of a hassle. People used to act like putting glass bottles in the recycling bin was arduous, too, but on the scale of human drudgery and misery it honestly doesn't rate if you just get on with it. Or don't, and just opt out).