Why Compost When I Can Landfill It?

Obviously I'm joking about the title, but people often forget that one of the main benefits of composting relates to greenhouse gas reduction.  How?  You may have wondered about this before...I know I did.  Why would throwing food scraps in my backyard pile be any different than in a landfill? It all started today when I was reading a document about waste treatment methods (my other favorite topic) and I noticed a parallel with composting.  It was comparing the global warming potential of carbon dioxide alongside methane. When waste is incinerated, it creates carbon dioxide amongst many other toxins that are conveniently ignored, although they include lead, mercury, dioxin, furans, and hydrochloric acid amongst others.  Carbon dioxide (CO2) has a global warming potential of 1.0. On the other hand, landfilling…

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