We all eat. And we all need to dispose of what we don’t eat. How we do that might end up making a world of a difference.

Preserving our planet and creating a healthier place to live, is crucial. An accessible and easy step we can all take is properly disposing of our food.

The key way to do this is simply through composting. For those of you who don’t know, compost is a mixture of ingredients, in this case it is leftover food that is used to fertilize and improve the soil. Composting is doable for almost everyone, helps us preserve our planet, and is a great first step in starting to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Trashing our food is pricey and costs the country billions each year. But even more importantly, uneaten food that is not composted puts unneeded strain on the environment by wasting valuable resources.

The alternative of composting has countless benefits including enriching soil and reducing the need for chemical fertilizers. Although there are plenty of understandable excuses to not compost, the positive impact it will make is truly incomparable.

To put it plainly, the impact of composting is as follows: While also enriching your plant growth and having less food waste, compost reduces organic waste in landfills and helps to reduce issues surrounding greenhouse gas emissions.

And because air pollution and greenhouse gases are often released from the same sources, cutting out these emissions in an effort to slow climate change simultaneously reduces air pollutants, such as fine particulate matter.

Reducing these co-emitted air pollutants is the key to thriving planet life. In addition, organic waste in landfills generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Therefore every time that you decide to compost instead of throwing your food in the trash, you are significantly reducing methane emissions and the potential for landfills to create liquid ‘leachate’ which can pollute our streams, oceans and underground water.

Everyone has to dispose of what they don’t eat in one way or another, and if they are interested in the preservation of our beautiful Earth, composting is undoubtably the best option. 

The next step in taking action incorporates researching options.

For many, an at-home composting bin is going to be the best choice especially if you have gardens or a spacious backyard. 

Buying a compost bin is also great, especially if you want a more low maintenance system. If you are more interested in solely a compost pile, an ideal space measures about 1 cubic yard. 

You will probably have best luck if you turn you pile every so often. 

If you don’t have the space outdoors, indoor composting systems look a little different. For a garage or a covered patio, compost tumblers work well. But if you need to compost inside your home, a countertop food digester is most likely a good option for you. 

These digesters use electricity to chop and dehydrate your food scraps until a powdery substance that acts as a organic fertilizer is created. For those living in urban areas, apartments, or places where these options are not available the key thing to do is to look into the resources around you. Many towns and cities have community composting that will do the job for you. 

For the Camden and Rockport area, ScrapDogs is an accessible option. ScrapDogs will pick up your food scraps and yard waste, cart it all to their facility, and turn it into healthy, nutrient-rich compost, ScrapDogs with either take it right back to you or sell it locally. All for one monthly fee. 

Many people have the idea that composting is realistically only an option for people who live in the country with a farm, but clearly composting can reach a variety of people living in all sorts of different places. So what’s stopping you now?  

For many negligent compost users, the list of excuses is always the same. People are worried animals will get into it, it will smell bad, it’s too much effort, its confusing what can go in it, or plunking it in the trash is just easier. While these are all extremely understandable reasons, they all have simple solutions.

If you are worried that your compost will stink up your house or yard, you should check in on your brown to green ration. This is simply because composted materials naturally contain so much water, they can easily become soggy and begin to smell. So if the scent from your compost is causing you discomfort, you might want to try adding some browns like shredded newspaper, straw or pine needles.

Most likely, fixing the smelliness of your compost will also keep animals away from messing with it. Though if that doesn’t work its super simple to add securely-latched lids or tight mesh wire sides to any bin. Plus, sorting what foods can go into the compost and what can’t, is extremely simple.

Anything that will decompose, like fruit, grass, newspaper, pasta, bread, and eggshells are perfectly compostable. And anything that will not break down or will attract animals is not. This includes bones, lard, coal, meat, and some highly acidic foods.

It might take some thought the first couple times you do it, but it will become habit the more that you compost. As far as the complaint that it is too much effort, think about it in this way. With a well-done system it is no more work than taking the trash out or taking out the recycling.

It is as big a project as you make it, therefore it can be hard work, but by composting you are gifting the world by creating a better place to live.

This also goes for the common excuse that is “putting it in the trash is just easier.” This is understandable, getting started can be the most challenging part. But placing your scraps in a small compost bin in your kitchen and putting it in a trash bag are just about the exact same amount of effort. The only difference lies in the impact that you are making.

Composting can be easy to put off, ignore, and turn down. However, we don’t have time to make excuses anymore. It is time to take action and put matters into our own hands.  

The entire process of composting is quite remarkable and the power that lies in it is even beyond what we know now. The fight to save our country from drowning in greenhouse gas emissions starts with you in your town.

Now matter how small or how insignificant it may seem, every action that you take as way to positively contribute to our planet is a stepping stone that is getting us closer to a world that isn’t fighting everyday to stay alive.

Although many people around the country have heard of it, still nearly 72% of Americans do not compost their waste. And about half of what Mainers send to landfills and incinerators every year could be turned into compost instead.

Much of us are still ignorant to the issue, make it your purpose to inform them. Every time that you chose to compost, our precious world is drawing closer to survival. At this time more than ever, the planet needs our help and if all it takes is throwing your apple core into your compost instead of the trash, why wouldn’t you help?

Chloe Root is a freshman at Camden Hills Regional High School. This was written as a part of a sustainability action project for her honors global science class taught by Margo Murphy.