Field Notes on Climate

– Ami Eckard-Lee: When you throw something away, it doesn't just disappear.

It ends up here, at a landfill.

On average, an American generates around five pounds of waste each day.

And with over 340 million people in the United States, that's a lot of trash.

But before it ends up here, it starts here, with a decision.

Choosing to sort our waste into the proper bins can help us reuse valuable resources and lower the amount of waste that ends up in landfills.

But what impact do our landfills have on climate change and the environment?

[gentle music] Landfills are a necessary part of how we handle waste, but how we steward them can have a big impact on climate change.

We send our waste to the landfill so it can break down.

But what exactly does it mean to "break down?"

I'm here to talk to a scientist who does her research right here at this landfill.

When we talk about things decomposing and breaking down in the landfill or anywhere, what are they actually breaking down into?

– Erica L-W Majumder: In a landfill, and actually, even in our guts, it's all about microorganisms.

And so, when I say a microorganism, I mean everything from a virus, a bacteria, a archaea, a fungi, and things like that.

And they're breaking down the waste to get at those nutrients that they need to grow.

So, your organic materials like food waste, for instance, those will break down mostly actually into sugars... - Okay.

- ...or other carbon sources.

They will eat those first.

Things like plastics or metal take a really long time, if they ever break down.

So, in all the different layers of the landfill, you get different microbial processes and different stages of composition that are happening.

- So, it's like a trash layer cake.

- Pretty much.

So, we kind of break them down into three big categories.

There's aerobic, and then there's fermentation, and then there's anaerobic.

So, we have our aerobic decomposers.

Those are our fastest ones.

And they use oxygen as part of their metabolism.

So, that breaks down all your organic waste.

And they feed the fermenters, which are dominantly bacteria.

And then, those fermenters feed a lot of the anaerobic microorganisms.

– Ami: Wow!

It is an ecosystem.

I don't think of the landfill as being alive, except maybe in a horror movie, so that's kind of cool.

So, question then, if most things, at least in geological time, do break down eventually, in the end, does it really matter which bin I put my waste in?

- It does if you wanna prevent pollution or make your landfill more efficient.

The landfill's best for materials that really take a long time to break down or don't have another reuse or a purpose.

We know that when there's more organic matter, like more food waste in a landfill, those are the materials that really stimulate methane production.

And methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2.

- Landfills are the third-largest source of methane emissions in the United States, primarily due to the anaerobic decomposition of nutrients from organic matter.

However, organic matter is compostable, and composting is an aerobic process that doesn't produce methane.

So, if we took our compostable things out of landfills in general, that would reduce the methane in landfills and significantly in the environment.

- Very much.

And that way, the stuff that ended up in our landfill is truly the stuff that we don't have any other use for or any other process.

So, that way, we're minimizing the amount of land use that goes into our landfills.

- So, how can we make our waste management system safer and more sustainable?

Let's meet up with a member of the Dane County Waste & Renewables team to learn about how this landfill is diverting organic waste to a composting facility.

We talk about composting, but what actually is happening?

What does it break down into?

– Delaney Gobster: Ooh, that's a great question.

So, when we talk about composting, composting is the process that makes compost.

So, compost is the final end product that you get.

It's not quite soil, but it's a fertilizer.

A soil amendment is kind of what we call it.

So, we talk through organic resources as a few different waste streams.

If you've heard of composting before, you might have heard of your greens and your browns.

So, nitrogen is your green.

Those will be your food scraps.

Carbons are your browns.

So, the leaves and the tree branches, the plants that grew your food.

And you want a nice ratio of that 'cause just like we wanna have a good, healthy diet, our compost microbes also need a good, healthy diet.

- Okay.

- So, but once you have your pile for composting, they eat away at all the carbon and nitrogen materials that are in that pile, and they break it down.

And then, once the compost is finished, we'll actually bag it and sell it so that we can use it in our gardens.

So, it'll be a nice nutrient boost for my plants.

- Okay, so waste isn't necessarily always waste.

– Delaney: Yeah.

- It's whether you're wasting it.

- Exactly, so we can turn those, that waste into resources to then put back into our environment and grow more plants.

– Ami: So, how does the organic waste that ends up here get diverted from going to a landfill instead?

– Delaney: Yeah.

Yeah, so, first we have to work with people before it gets to the landfill.

So, we work with residents through our Food Scrap Stop program, where they can drop off food scraps that they collect at home, and then we bring 'em here, and it doesn't make its way to the landfill.

– Ami: Did you know that over a third of our landfill waste is organic matter that could be composted instead?

This is organic waste.

But how do you compost it?

Let's find out.

Hey, Sam.

– Sam Olson: Hey.

- So, how does this food scrap program work, and what do I do with this?

- Yeah, it's super easy to use.

There's food scrap stops across Dane County.

It's a program run by the Dane County Waste & Renewables.

These are composting bins.

They're community compost bins, so anyone in Dane County can use them.

So, there's a lock.

After you fill out a short six-question survey on their website, you get the combination.

You show up to your chosen location, unlock it.

Open it up.

- Ta-da!

- Drop the food scraps, lock it back up.

There you go.

- That is super easy.

- Yes, it is.

- So, what is the food scrap program and how did you get involved with it?

- I was a youth representative on the Dane County Public Works and Transportation Committee.

- Wow!

- And so, one of the things that we had to deal with often was community concern about expanding landfills because whenever those landfills expand, it does take up public lands that would otherwise be used for something else.

And so, making sure that landfills aren't expanding as much is a huge priority.

And composting played a huge role in that, 'cause they're keeping all those food scraps that would otherwise be going into the landfill right here.

And honestly, the community totally knocked it out the park.

- Awesome!

- In the first two months, there were over 1,000 people that signed up.

And now, it's, yeah, and it's not just this location.

It's really all the locations.

They're all receiving tons of resident food scraps.

- Oh, that's awesome.

One of the best ways to get involved in sustainable waste management is to educate yourself, your family, and your friends about the right way to dispose of waste, or find ways to minimize the amount of waste you produce.

Here are some ideas.

Find creative ways to reuse your old stuff and make it new.

Or donate items that other people might want instead of just throwing them away.

Use reusable products or recyclable alternatives instead of single-use items, and start composting at home.

If you wanna scale up your efforts, reach out to local restaurants and see if they'll switch their carryout containers to recyclable or compostable ones.

Petition your school to start a composting program with the food scraps left over from lunch.

Or learn about the practices at your local landfill, and become an advocate for additional sustainable practices in your community.

There are lots of ways to limit your waste production.

So, don't get down in the dumps!

Find ways to reduce the amount of trash you make each day.

Reuse valuable resources and recycle materials to give them new life.

After all, waste is just resources put in the wrong places.

- Okay, mates!

Aluminum cans, put 'em in the recycling!

- In the recycling!

- It'll help the Earth.

- Yeah, we can all recycle, right?

Awesome!