Food waste Recycling

In nature, the waste of one system is food for another. Before humans began creating complex materials that nature can’t digest, there was no waste, and humans fit nicely into the ecosystem. In the past 100 years, however, humans developed a range of complex materials that nature can’t digest. The common solution for most of these materials at the completion of their frequently short lives is putting them in a pile (i.e. landfills) or burning them (i.e. incineration). Both solutions are highly problematic, wasteful and unsustainable.

Landfills, principally used in the Americas, are the worst solution as the materials take years, potentially centuries, to decompose, leaching toxins into the ground and methane into the air. Older (and still common) incineration systems capture some energy, but are not efficient — and they pollute. Newer systems are much more efficient and clean, but it’s still a linear system that promotes a reliance on fossil fuels and presumes materials will always become obsolete.