{"id":16620,"date":"2014-06-23T14:51:25","date_gmt":"2014-06-23T20:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=16620"},"modified":"2014-06-23T14:51:25","modified_gmt":"2014-06-23T20:51:25","slug":"composting-at-schools-really-address-issue-food-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-at-schools-really-address-issue-food-waste\/","title":{"rendered":"Composting at Schools: Does it Really Address the Issue of Food Waste?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"composting<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m a die-hard composter myself – just ask my wife what happens when she throws scraps in the garbage – and, as long-time readers know, I’m a fan of the concept<\/a> at both small and large scales. While I realize some will argue for some form of biogas production<\/a> as a preferable alternative, I know that such options just aren’t available everywhere – and, in many of those cases, the leftover material still sits in a landfill. So, you’d expect that when I come across an article like this one from today’s New York Times<\/em><\/a>, I’d probably be cheering… right?<\/p>\n

No… not this time.<\/p>\n

See, as much as I love composting, and think its a very viable alternative for the food waste produced when preparing food for eating, I don’t necessarily like it as a solution for the waste of otherwise edible food. Yes, I definitely think composting is preferable to sending it to a landfill… but that doesn’t make it the solution to the actual problem at hand. Truthfully, I grimaced pretty hard at the thought of those kids pitching perfectly good bananas in this article’s first two paragraphs. We’re still wasting food… composting it is a second-best alternative.<\/p>\n

So, if Composting at Schools Isn’t the Answer, What Is?<\/h3>\n

“So, c’mon, smart guy: how do you make kids eat everything they’re served?” That’s a perfectly viable response here, and I don’t have a perfectly viable answer – kids are kids, and often don’t like things. I also know that logistics are an issue in school cafeterias: there are lots of kids to feed, so uniform meals not only insure that children are receiving nutritionally-balanced meals (well, at least, we hope), but that all kids are getting those meals in a timely fashion. \u00a0I’d argue for more of a buffet-style set-up, where kids can choose what they’d like, but I’m guessing that would not only wreck the lunchroom logistics, but also create… wait for it… lots of food waste: many kids will want the same things.<\/p>\n

I’d love to hear about success stories on this front: how has your child’s school addressed the issue of food waste (which isn’t just an environmental issue – that’s also money going to the landfill!). Maybe composting is the only really viable solution… but, boy, I just hate seeing all of that food go uneaten…<\/p>\n

Image credit: <\/strong>LauraGilchrist4<\/a> via photopin<\/a> cc<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Composting at schools addresses the costs of wastes in general, but not the specific issue of food waste; edible food is still not being eaten.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":16621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1817,1300,1585,2635,48],"yoast_head":"\nComposting at Schools Doesn't Fix Food Waste Issue<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Composting at schools addresses the costs of wastes in general, but not the specific issue of food waste; edible food is still not being eaten.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-at-schools-really-address-issue-food-waste\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Composting at Schools Doesn't Fix Food Waste Issue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Composting at schools addresses the costs of wastes in general, but not the specific issue of food waste; 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