To Compost or Digest? Municipal Solid Waste and the Future of Food Scrap Recycling

• In Event: 50620 - Section on Environmental Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 13: Food Consumption and Waste

Abstract

Local governments are at a crossroads with regard to solid waste management. In some regions, landfills—the primary recipients of solid waste for many municipalities—are nearing capacity. As dump fees increase, governments can pass along the costs to households, but only for so long. Alternative means of disposing of solid waste, such as trash incineration and export, are on the rise; however, these methods are also expensive and environmentally costly. Along with the expenses, cities are under increasing pressure to become “sustainable” in line with public demands for climate mitigation and environmental health. Local governments are thus looking at strategies to decrease the volume of waste and for “greener” solutions to managing various materials. Organic waste is, so to speak, low-hanging fruit: it constitutes a large share of the solid waste stream, and its breakdown is a major contributor to the negative environmental impacts of landfills. This extended abstract compares bio-digesting and composting, two emerging strategies for diverting organic waste from landfills, assessing their strengths and limitations and the implications of each in terms of Marx’s “metabolic rift.”

Author

• Charlotte Frost Glennie Roberts, Providence College