Reducing food waste can start at home

At home, families can take a look at how they composite the amount of food they no longer need. Food has a lot of environmental impacts, even when it’s rotten, or needs to be disposed of.

"Think about the food that they’re buying and do their best to have different strategies in place in their homes to waste less, says Lerohl. But when you do inevitability make food waste, things like pits and peels, scraps, coffee grounds, you do not have to throw them in the trash. About forty percent of what a family produces in their average garbage can is food waste, and it doesn’t have to go to the landfill."

Sarah Lerohl is an Environmental Program Coordinator for the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District.

When food scrap and yard waste is dropped off at the compost site, like the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District. Site operators mix the compost every day and go through a nine-month compositing process. Once that’s done, it goes through a screening and is packaged up to sell.

If you would like to learn more about composting for your backyard, visit www.compostinfo.com for a 20-minute tutorial that will teach and show you details about composting. To learn more about general composting and different services in the area where you can discard products, you can visit the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District website.