Food Waste & Composting
Work with Your Municipality to Start a Food Scrap Diversion Pilot
Learn Why Reducing Food Waste is Important to Fighting Climate Change
Step 1. Read on Project Drawdown's website.
Food waste contributes to about 8 percent of global emissions and almost everyone wastes food! When food is wasted, all the energy, resources, and money that went into producing, processing, packaging, and transporting it are wasted, too. Greenhouse gases are produced at every stage.
And since most people put their food waste into plastics bags before landfilling, composting help is a plastics pollution solution!
Watch and Read About Available Resources
Step 2. Use the following resources to educate yourself, look for funding sources, and read about successful food scrap diversion programs.
Selected New and Ongoing USDA Food Loss and Waste Reduction Activities
Composting Toolkit from NRRA (Watch the video for more info.)
Read the case studies from Lebanon and New London, NH.
Start Your Own Food Scrap Diversion Program
Step 3. Use the resource How to Start a Municipal Food Scrap Diversion Program and follow these steps:
Contact your Department of Environmental Services or Department of Environmental Protection
Tour a Facility
Have an End Goal in Mind
Design a Pilot Program
Understand the Budget Implications
Attend a Training Program
Develop & Distribute Public Education Materials
Be Creative!
Resources
Model Measures and Template Language • April 2024