(image by joi via flickr)

During the first few years of becoming a hardcore composter, I decided to measure how much waste I was diverting from the solid waste stream. I think it’s important that when any alternative to conditioned behaviors is presented it be analyzed in a concrete, scientific way so that it can clearly be seen as a viable alternative. The results must be visible and dramatic enough so that individuals will decide that the benefits are worth withstanding discomfort and sacrifice.

I undertook my first weeklong measurement project nine years ago when I was catsitting for my compost-crazed friend Naomi in her Manhattan apartment. I sorted into 3 main categories; then, at the end of the week, I weighed everything using an antique metal produce scale. She had a wormbin for recycling food so I deposited my scraps in there. Usually, I would have dropped them off at the Lower East Side Ecology Center’s Greenmarket drop-off table.

Now I know nine years ago is a while back, but the numbers are still relevant, at least in NYC, where acceptable items for recycling haven’t changed dramatically. It was important for me to take an inventory, not just to see how much food waste I was generating and then diverting, but also to observe all the other trash I generated and incorporate lifestyle changes to further decrease my garbage output. I wanted to answer the question: How much of an impact can one person make?

Recently I decided to bring these statistics up to date. I again saved, sorted and weighed all garbage using an accurate bathroom scale. The data recorded here is not precise, but it’s pretty close.

Waste produced was sorted into three categories:

• food waste for an indoor vermicomposting bin (1999) or backyard compost unit (2008)
• plastics, metal, glass, and paper recycled through the NYC municipal recycling program (1999) or Village recycling program (2008)
• landfill-bound trash

A few notes about the numbers:

• The 2008 data represents the waste I currently produce with my lovely parents (who put up with my scrupulous scrap saving and watching me get on and off the bathroom scale a dozen times).
• From comparing the total for these 2 weeks, I can see how lifestyle, location, and number of people in the household all make a big difference in total amount of garbage produced. For example, when I was catsitting in 1999, I was using fewer disposable products (such as tissues and paper towels), but more non-recyclable plastics. Later on I started using reusable menstrual pads, which created even less garbage. By comparison, my parents and I generate much more garbage. Noimpactman has a lot of great ideas on reducing your trash flow.
• There’s a noticeable difference in the data on food waste for these 2 weeks. This reflects the larger proportion of garbage I create with my parents, as well as irregularities of eating at home.

What all of this obsessive saving, separating and weighing shows is that we could actually transform the solid waste problem into a solid waste opportunity by figuring out ways that composting could be developed on a large scale, tailored for a variety of communities depending on the variables and resources of each one. If our perspective shifted from seeing food waste as garbage to seeing it as a raw material for nutrient cycling—there would be no problem!

The most exciting part is really not what is saved, but what is created. The soil in my parent’s garden is a testament to their 30+ years of composting: rich soft soil like chocolate cake, a wondrous variety of plants, honey bees that buzz by in the summer, cardinals in their crimson coats balancing on the fence over turquoise blue morning glories. Don’t we want richness, abundance, health and beauty? If you are not composting, just think of all that potential beauty being tossed in landfills, creating methane gas and leaching into our precious groundwater.

Does one person’s effort make a big difference?

You bet it does ... since I started composting every day, with the only breaks being brief travel here and there (I’m a homebody), I have diverted roughly 2,106 lbs. of food waste. Over 1 ton out of the solid waste stream and into the nutrient cycle! This figure represents me, an omnivore generating about three pounds of food waste per week over a 13½ year period.

There are other ways to reduce your food waste, too, from planning and shopping carefully to donating to needy families.

Currently, as much as 40% of the food bought in America is not eaten. For those who want to make a positive impact on the environment, reducing food waste is truly low-hanging fruit.

(Stay tuned for our editor’s personal experiment in worm composting in her Brooklyn apartment.)