Painted Bins Is Helping our Earth by Reducing Food Waste

The Problem!

In the United States, 30 to 40 percent of food is wasted. In 2010, 133 billion pounds of food was wasted. Lots of families waste a lot more food than they think, most of them don't know how reducing food waste could benefit them and their future. When food waste goes into the landfill, it emits methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, which increases global warming. In 2017, “humans accounted for 14.1 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.”

Our Perspective!

We are freshman at Terra Linda High School in the Marin School of Environmental Leadership (MSEL) Program. Right now, we are working with Painted Bins founder, Kathy Huber. Our main goal is to spread the word about composting, food diversion and the overall idea of Painted Bins.

How Painted Bins are helping!

Painted Bins make our parks and public spaces look healthier and cleaner in Marin. They do this by inserting compost bins for the appropriate disposal of food scraps. It inspires adults and kids to compost by using children’s art to create awareness about diverting food waste from the landfill. When leftover food is made into compost, it decomposes into nutrients that can be used as fertilizer in soil that can help plants and grass grow, making our ecosystem healthier. By composting food waste, it helps keep greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere, helping to fight climate change.               

 About Climate Change

Climate change is one of the world's most serious threats, that is putting the natural systems that sustain human health at risk. Climate change has caused changes to the atmosphere and habitat loss. Many countries have committed to reduce waste and carbon emissions, but global warming is still increasing. The production of food affects climate change because the more food is wasted and thrown into the landfill, the more emissions of greenhouse gasses get released into the air contributing to global warming, but climate change also also affects food production because it leads to overnutrition, undernutrition and less micronutrients, mostly in children.

How can people help!

An easy way we can help is by composting. Composting has two main benefits that help the environment. Composting helps keep food waste out of landfills and fertilizes things like plants, grass and trees, with no toxic chemicals that are bad for the air. Composting is a process that over time, breaks down food, and turns it into a cakelike soil that is known as the, “world's best fertilizer.” It's even a little bit like recycling, but instead of reusing plastic bottles and straws, you are reusing old banana peels and dead leaves. The best way to compost is to collect wet and dry food waste in a compost bin, and let it decompose. All in all, composting is a great process that benefits our plants and our air.

Charlie Ahlemeyer and Charlie Meneau, 9th grade. Terra Linda High School, San Rafael, CA

 Please visit https://www.paintedbins.org/the-problem to learn more about food waste.