Over the past nine months, we’ve looked at ways to help reduce food waste in our own kitchens and keep our planet happier and healthier by using all those scraps that often end up in landfills contributing to our ever-growing environmental problems. The worldwide statistics are sobering, over a third of all food we produce is thrown out, over a billion tons of edible food, not spoiled, but edible, gets tossed in the landfills and oceans. This impacts our environment, our climate, our economics, and certainly our health. We’ve rolled up our sleeves in the past to save these resources, and now’s the time to do so again.
How long do you think it takes for a head of lettuce to decompose in a landfill? It’s biodegradable after all, so mixed with all that other stuff in the landfill, it shouldn’t take long, right? It’s just vegetable matter.
Wrong. I was surprised to learn that it actually takes about 25 years for that head of lettuce to decompose in the anaerobic atmosphere of a landfill, devoid of air to help in the decomposition process. Over two decades. Longer than my last pair of Birkenstocks. I was gob smacked! Twenty-five years! How could I not know this?
So now what?
We’ve created a mess that seems to have a life of its own, and we wonder how there can possibly be solutions? Will one person eating broccoli stems rather than tossing them out make any difference in this global problem? Can this be fixed on a world-wide stage? Can we claw ourselves out of this massive dumpster we’ve created? It seems pretty dismal when you look at some of the figures. Where in the world do we go from here?
We already know how to do it.
There may be lots of bad news, but the good news is we already have all the technology we need to solve this problem, and all over the world creative minds are coming up with new and innovative solutions to using this waste. What we need a little more of is the resolve to put it in practice, even if it hurts at first.
First, don’t waste the food, but then keep what’s left out of landfills
Over a dozen states in the US have banned disposing of food scraps in landfills by residents and businesses; it’s a start, but that is not nearly enough. Landfills are the third largest source of methane in our country, a greenhouse gas far stronger than carbon dioxide. But throughout the planet, food scrap recycling has become a more routine practice, as it has in the past, and we need to keep this movement forward.
For an explanation of how that head of lettuce stays in tact for 25 years, the following article discusses the process needed to break down organic matter, and how the landfill environment doesn’t do that: Population Education.
It starts on the home front
Routine is important. In little or no time, our parents and grandparents adapted to food rationing and scarcity during two world wars and the Great Depression. The smallest savings on the home front added up to a great savings collectively. In a relatively short time, these frugal actions became habits that lasted them a lifetime, simple things they handed down to their kids by example – reverent, intentional acts that made a difference. They still do.
The right and only thing to do
Our little state of Vermont was the first in the country to ban food scraps in our landfill, and has been at the forefront of tackling the food waste problem, adopting in 2012 a food recovery hierarchy into law to assist in the management of surplus food. This was enacted not only because it was the right thing to do, but also in a large part out of necessity, as is often the impetuous for any meaningful change. Thus, diverting the food scraps not only reduces methane emissions from the landfill, it also saves space and extends the life of Vermont’s only facility.
More than one way to recycle those scraps
Even if we are really good about using all parts of the food we purchase, there will be waste: the remnants of veggies you used to make stock, spoiled matter, and the bits that are not edible. In the last five years, two-thirds of Vermonters are now recycling their food waste, and most of that becomes compost. According to the state’s numbers, 43% of households compost themselves, 13% goes to collections at the transfer stations, and 12% is picked up by waste haulers. We still have a ways to go.
Infrastructure needs to be in place
The infrastructure is key. As with many other things, we have to make it less expensive to recycle, or more expensive not to. While many Vermonters have their own compost heaps, still the most popular method, our transfer stations are equipped with bins for people to bring their kitchen food scraps, and this is free, a good incentive. Additionally, trash haulers are required to pick up the food scraps as well, although they charge for this service. Many people have been delighted to discover their by-the-pound weekly trash disposal is now costing them less because of all the rather heavy, diverted food stuff.
Where it goes
There are 22 food scrap management centers scattered throughout the state, most converting the scraps to compost. The need for the infrastructure also provides the possibilities of many inventive projects and techniques, and the creation of new jobs.
We’re doing good, but we still need to do better, and this takes commitment.
Vermont’s Priorities for Food and Food Scraps
This plan is a good one for all.
Here are just a few examples of some exciting success stories around the globe, and I could list many more. You probably have some ideas too!
98% food scraps recycled in South Korea! Gold Star!
In South Korea, a 2013 law banning food scraps from the garbage stream was enacted as part of its Zero Waste initiative. South Korea was one of the highest food waste countries with a per capita waste of 130 kg. a year. By setting up an infrastructure for residents to be able to easily recycle the food scraps (compost, animal feed, and biofuel), they have reduced their food scrap waste stream by an amazing 98%, with the average cost to a family of four about $6 a month.
South Korea’s food scrap program.
Stale bread to beer?
I really love this one. All over the world, beer crafters are employing this ancient technique to use leftover bread in their brewing process.
Food fridge
A Geneva-based non-profit provides free-access public refrigerators and food shelves so anyone passing by can help themselves to food that would otherwise be wasted. Most of the food is reported to be ‘harvested’ within hours, and several other cities have followed suit.
New life for ugly produce
While large grocery stores may reject bruised and misshapen produce, in many countries, including Australia, subscription boxes of these imperfect and cut-priced items are a popular choice.
Portable composters in 24 hours
In Malaysia, on-site food composters use a special enzyme process to covert organic waste into compost. They can be used at home or commercially.
Food waste to furniture.
Why not? Ottan Studio, a Turkey-based company, has made a name for itself by converting food and garden waste into bio-composite material from which it makes furniture, decorative items, and wall paneling.
Replate
Replate is on a mission to reduce food waste and alleviate food insecurity. Donated surplus food is redistributed to communities in need, and it is all coordinated on-line. Surplus meets demand with efficiency.
Replate: https://www.re-plate.org/about
Now is the time to clean house!
It really does start with eating that broccoli stem, not tossing the head of lettuce in the trash, and being as careful as we can about our own kitchen management. But it doesn’t stop there. It’s also about having the resolve to make the tough decisions on a legislative level that will encourage and pave the way for us all to do the right thing. If your state or country does not have mandatory food scrap recycling, now’s the time to contact your representatives, let them know about your concerns.
Knowledge is power
In the meantime, here are a few documentaries you might like to watch that offer some of the gruesome facts and figures, as well as some of the highlights of what various others are doing to combat the problem. They can be found on Prime, Netflix, or YouTube.
“Wasted: The Story of Food Waste,” 2017. Narrated in part by the late Anthony Bourdain, this documentary looks at the scope of the food waste problem, advocating the change needed to ensure food security on a global basis.
“Just Eat It! A Food Waste Story,” 2019. A couple spends six months eating only food they find (yes, even in dumpsters) or can purchase at an extreme discount because it is no longer beautiful enough to sell. Needless to say, they didn’t starve.
“Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy,” 2024. While not exclusively about food, this eye-opening documentary looks at all the items that become ‘disposable’ in our society, and the tricks used to keep us buying.
Scrap Happy Planet: On the Home Front
Links to Scrap Happy posts with ideas on how to use up those scraps in our own kitchens. It always starts with us, so let’s roll up our sleeves, put on our aprons, and get cooking with intention. We can do this!
Let’s not waste the cheese: Fromage Fort, from refrigerator bits to star of the party.
All that leftover rice: Leftover rice could feed the planet!
Egg dishes to the rescue: Frittatas and Omelets to the Rescue!
Stale Bread and its many uses: Stale Bread for the Banquet.
From trash to beautiful broth: Taking and Making Stock
What to do with those produce parts: Raid your vegetable and fruit scrap bowls.
Pestos and Sauces save the day: Can I tell you about peppermint pesto?
Using leftovers: When you say ‘leftovers tonight,’ do they cheer?
“To leave the world better than you found it, sometimes you have to pick up other people’s trash.” —Bill Nye
Copyright 2025– or current year, The New Vintage Kitchen. Dorothy Grover-Read. Unattributed use of this material and photographs is strictly prohibited. Reposting and links may be used, provided that credit is given to The New Vintage Kitchen, with active link and direction to this original post.
Supporter of: Slow Food Fair Trade USA Northeast Organic Farmers Association EcoWatch Let’s Save Our Planet No Kid Hungry Hunger Free Vermont Environmental Working Group World Central KitchenSustainable America Seed Savers Exchange
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Great ideas here, Dorothy! Thank you for sharing them!
You are most kindly welcome! Thanks for stopping by!
Marvellous ideas some of which I had not heard of before. Shall see what more I can do and also repost for others to read – thank you! And look at all your ‘left-over’ recipes – I have made stock such as this for a long time! Good for my purse as well as the planet!
And your homemade stock tastes so much better! We win all the way!
I wonder if folks will be a little more (or a lot more?) motivated now to practice this, given the continuing increasing prices of food. Thank you for all the excellent sources you provided; I look forward to checking them out.
That’s always been a reality check, hasn’t it Suz? The more food costs, the less we tend to waste.
Thank you for sharing important and sustainable information! This is the only way to fully utilize all your food, and work on a hunger free world… thank you for sharing! ☺️
Thank you so much! We can all play our role and be a part of the solution.
Thank you, Dorothy, although I don’t waste food, and I am vegetarian.
Joanna
Thanks for stopping by Joanna! You are doing a great job with your personal carbon footprint!
What a marvellous and comprehensive dive into waste management, Dorothy. This will take a little time to thoroughly check out all of your suggestions and links. About those ‘imperfect veggies and fruits’. I smile whenever I see them in the green grocers. Was a time they would not have been a consideration for the general public. Now the savvy consumer sees good produce at very reasonable prices.
Thank you Carolyn! It is indeed a lot to take in! Keep buying those ugliest veggies, they always make me smile!
Our local recycling center has a compost area for food scraps, and it is heavily used.
Wonderful Judy! If we put it in place, people will be good! We want to do the right thing, and not everyone has the room for a compost bin.
Dot, this is one area of recycling I have never thought about. I always thought that food decomposed quickly and became a good fertilizer. Thanks for the wake up call.
I know, I guess in my mind I thought of a landfill as a giant compost heap, but I also know, from having compost heaps for decades, they need aeration for stuff to break down! Brain connection there was lacking!
Amazing amount of good, solid information here, D …. the user’s guide for combating food waste! Thanks!
Thanks Sis! It is such an important topic, and we can all work on it together.
Absolutely right, Sis! Nicely done!
Thank you! 💕
Ooh! Bread to beer! Love it! These are all great ideas.
Thank you! I really loved that idea too, and there are lots of places using this old method.
Hi Dorothy, thank you for this informative post.
You are very welcome my friend! Keep up the good works.
🙏💚
There’s minimal food waste from my kitchen altho’ I haven’t gone so far as to use the peelings. I loved having pigs & chickens; nothing went to waste. All kitchen scraps got fed to them. Jerry Seinfeld once said the fridge crisper should be called the rotter!
We had chickens growing up, and they devoured most of those excess veggie scraps! And they gave us lots of manure for the garden and beautiful eggs!
This is a great culmination of all the incredible posts you’ve shared with us, Dorothy! A couple of things stood out to me, including the “not quite pretty” produce mention. I remember how disappointed I was a number of years ago to see the produce employees at Whole Foods removing blemished zucchini from the shelves, as if it was no longer edible for having a scrape here or there. When did we all lose sight of the fact that these are natural products, prone to minor flaws? I did a trial subscription to Misfit Market, which sends boxes of “imperfect” foods, and I found it to be neither money saving nor environmentally friendly, because they ship the perishables with large, non-reusable freezer gel packs. Good concept, but poor execution in my opinion. Anyway, I love to hear your passion for this subject, and I’m going to seek out the Anthony Bourdain documentary for sure!
During Covid, I used the Misfit service and I must say, most of the produce was not what I would consider to be a misfit by any means. It was expensive, and I totally agree about the packaging. I was so glad when our farm stands opened up again, even though only three of us were allowed in at a time! Boy, I’m never going to forget all that!
25 years? Is that because it isn’t cut up small? My compost bin decomposes scraps cur small in a few weeks. But is that producing too much methane? All this is fantastic information and links, Dorothy. I will add some of these links and examples to the environmental tips column I write for the local magazine, (crediting you as source). Spreading the message, globally. And yes, I buy ugly fruit and vegetable boxes!
It’s amazing, but true Amanada. Your compost heap doesn’t produce methane, but the materials in landfills do. Organic material needs air to decompose, and that doesn’t happen in landfills. Here is a good article explaining the process:
https://populationeducation.org/why-doesnt-organic-waste-break-down-in-a-landfill-and-why-is-food-waste-in-landfills-a-problem/
Keep buying those ugly veggies and fruits!
Thanks for clarifying, Dorothy. That makes sense. I have one of the compost tumblers so it is super fast. It is pretty hard to turn over a massive landfill pile.
Regards,
Amanada (Tee hee). N.B. A friend typed my name that same way once when he wrote me a work reference! Haha. His wife got him to correct it! Lol.
Oops! Sorry! Sounds like the name of one of our New England breads Anadama!
No Worries! I am now intrigued about Anadama. What kind of bread is that?
It’s a traditional New England bread that uses both flour and cornmeal. Here’s a link to my version, which includes an explanation of the most unusual name! https://vintagekitchen.org/2021/01/30/spelt-anadama-bread/
I really love this series and it’s giving me more ideas. Aside from broth, I’ve taken to making pesto or aji style sauce with the leftover bits of herbs and peppers. And I love ugly fruits & veg, there’s always a use for them!
Oh and recently I got a chance to try Toast Brewing beers, made from leftover bread at a beer festival. It was pretty good and they have lots of types.
I’m thrilled you got a chance to taste the bread beer! I haven ‘t seen it yet, but I’m certainly intrigued with the idea.
Good work! It takes us all to solve this problem!
This has been a brilliant and informative series, Dorothy. Thank you! It’s a sad indictment of our modern society that it’s even necessary to consider food waste but I hope many people have been inspired by your plentiful (and delicious) ideas. 💕
Thank you so much Lis! It’s such an important topic and I hope anything I’ve written will help in some small way. Thanks for reading!
Always a pleasure! 😊
Here in the Netherlands we have been collecting organic waste separately for decades. It is used to make compost or to make methane which is then used as fuel for a power generator or comunal hot water. If it does end up in general waste, it will be burnt and again used as fuel. Did you know there was once a plan to use the Grand Canyon as a landfill site?
I do remember hearing that Stefan! Luckily, that one never materialized, so to speak.
Good job in the Netherlands!
Wow I never knew how long it took lettuce to decompose in landfill…I wish they were more proactive here with food waste …I have found this series very informative, Dorothy and have learnt a few things although I have always or for many years used brocolli stems and never throw them away 🙂
Thank you Carol! I’ve learned a lot writing this series, especially about how long it takes food to break down in an airless landfill. Thanks for reading, I know you are doing your part!
I can image 25 years is unbelievable for lettuce! I try my best and have very little waste I have got cooking down portion wise to a fine art and any leftovers are either frozen or eaten the next day…
I remember turning an old compost pile that had seen no attention for four or five years. I found an onion that looked pretty much the way it had when it went it. I had forgotten about that until I read the info about how long it takes for organic matter to compost in a landfill.
You are a great example Carol of how we should be approaching our food waste dilemma. Thoughtful actions rather than thoughtless ones, and the first part of the puzzle is buying and cooking what you need to reduce waste.
Thank you for your kind words, Dorothy and yes you are absolutely correct our compost needs turning regularly its our once a week job here normally hubbys but sometimes I help …I still think more should be done in schools start them young and they never forget…
My granddaughter’s school has a garden and a great composting program, they weigh everything that is composted from their lunch room each week. They also weigh all the recycle plastic that goes to this local company that is goig to make them a garden bench; of course, ‘reduce’ is the first of the three Rs, so that always should be the priority. The use of plastic also makes me cringe!
It sounds like your grandaughters school is doing their part in reducing waste and yes plastic I am of the mind that the manufacturers should be doing more as much of the plastic they produce needs specialist equipment to recycle it thus they should be paying for that given the profits they return on their goods/drinks it shouldn’t be down to governments and town councils. Governments need to man up and make sure that happens or plastic will always be a problem although in some countries it isn’t like Sweden and Germany who have really strong plastic management systems in place x
That’s the resolve part isn’t it! Business won’t do the right thing on its own unless the right thing is cheaper, and it seldom is.
We should all have our congressional representatives on speed dial, even though that term has already become archaic.
Absolutely, Dorothy but we can mither our congressional representitives by letter or email or hit them in the ballot box if enough people do that they won’t be able to ignore whats happening . Have a lovely weekend x
You too my friend!
A lot of folks forget about their freezers! I know how I love it when I have a long day and just thaw some yummy soup from another time!
Me too as you know if used in conjunction with your cooking there should be none or little waste 🙂 x
Love my freezer. Our granddaughter stayed over a couple of nights ago and Monday morning her breakfast before school was my whole wheat blueberry pancakes, tasted like I had just made them!
Very nice I’m sure your grandaughter enjoyed them very much, Dorothy the freezer is such a boon like you I would be lost without mine…x
Thank you for this important and informative post on preventing food waste, Dorothy. My parents lived during the depression, and they knew what it was like to be hungry. They forbid us to waste food. I must step up my prevention now that I live alone.
We all can do our part, be a little better. It always starts with us.
Thank you Dorothy for the great information about our food and how long it takes to decompose, you definitely taught me some new facts!
I love it when I research a story and learn right along with everyone else!