Can the food you don’t eat give you gas?

Most of us don’t eat about 14% of the food we purchase. It ends up in the garbage can but it still gives us gas. Specifically, when wasted food ends up in the landfill it generates a greenhouse gas that is 23 times more potent as an atmosphere heat-trapper than carbon dioxide is. The greenhouse gas is methane and we ought to be just as concerned about our “methane footprint”. 

How much food do we waste?
Americans  waste about $50 billion a year. 
What’s the answer?

• Plan more carefully before leaving for the grocery store. 
• Use leftovers from meals and bring home uneaten food when you dine out at restaurants. (Encourage them to use biodegradable take-out trays by the way.)
• Know what foods you have in the fridge and eat them before their expiration date.
• Lastly, compost so that the uneaten leftovers and food shavings and scarps help fertilize your garden as you grow your own local produce.

Okay, now here’s the commercial. My Green Mind sells a number of composters. One new one is a bin that rolls on the wheels of a horizontal base to make churning compost really easy. The Compost Wizard Jr. comes in 7 or a 12 cubic foot sizes. A second composter, the Aerobin, offers a much larger capacity and is even easier to use. It has a patented, aerated system that doesn’t require any churning. 

What to compost and what you shouldn’t.
Do Compost: fruit peels, vegetable peels coffee grinds and filters, tea bags, egg shells, plant trimmings and table waste. Also leaves, dry grass, tissue paper, shredded newspaper, shredded cartons and shredded egg cartons.  
Avoid: Meat, fish, dairy, sauces, oil, fat, pet waste, bones and seeding weeds.