Do Countertop Compost Machines Really Work?
The sad vegetables at the back of your fridge won’t just be wasted when you finally throw them away: They could also contribute to global warming.When food is buried under heaps of other trash in a landfill, the bacteria that would normally turn it into nutrient-rich soil can’t get enough oxygen to do the job. Instead, different bacteria gobble it up and release methane, a potent greenhouse gas.Landfills are the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and food in landfills accounts for about 58 percent of those emissions.“Diverting food waste from the landfill is one of the easiest things we can do to help solve climate change,” said Rebecca Ryals, an associate professor at the University of California, Merced, who has studied the environmental effects of composting for 20 years.Some companies behind newfangled kitchen gadgets claim that they make it easier to keep food waste out of landfills by converting organic waste to compost in a matter of hours, not months. But what do these pricey contraptions really produce? And are any of them really good for the environment?Read on.Not exactly compostA handful of appliances on the market have been advertised as household composting machines. But, according to experts, that’s simply not true: These machines do not produce compost, dirt or soil.Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.
We’ve got the dirt on what the devices actually do, and what they don’t.
The sad vegetables at the back of your fridge won’t just be wasted when you finally throw them away: They could also contribute to global warming.
When food is buried under heaps of other trash in a landfill, the bacteria that would normally turn it into nutrient-rich soil can’t get enough oxygen to do the job. Instead, different bacteria gobble it up and release methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Landfills are the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and food in landfills accounts for about 58 percent of those emissions.
“Diverting food waste from the landfill is one of the easiest things we can do to help solve climate change,” said Rebecca Ryals, an associate professor at the University of California, Merced, who has studied the environmental effects of composting for 20 years.
Some companies behind newfangled kitchen gadgets claim that they make it easier to keep food waste out of landfills by converting organic waste to compost in a matter of hours, not months. But what do these pricey contraptions really produce? And are any of them really good for the environment?
Read on.
Not exactly compost
A handful of appliances on the market have been advertised as household composting machines. But, according to experts, that’s simply not true: These machines do not produce compost, dirt or soil.
Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.