This really IS a "brilliant answer", but I wish this article had explained what Vancouver does with the collected "food scraps" ~ though I deeply hate to waste food, I confess that I end up tossing out at least a few things found in my frig or buried in the freezer every week ~ I swear it won't happen again ... and then it does ~ ~ I, and obviously millions of others, need to get serious about not wasting ~ there are a few "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

Thursday, Jan 15, 2015 3:30 PM UTC
Vancouver’s brilliant answer to food waste
The U.S. throws away around 30 million tons of food every year.
Joanna Rothkopf

Food waste is one of the biggest environmental problems that we can actually help fight on a daily basis. We throw away around 30 million tons of food away every year (which is pretty despicable considering how many people don’t have enough to eat). When food is thrown into a landfill and begins to decompose, it becomes a major producer of methane – a greenhouse gas that is 21 times more harmful to global warming than carbon dioxide. In fact, landfills produce over 20 percent of all methane emissions in the U.S.

So, the city of Vancouver has decided to take action against waste by making it illegal to throw away food scraps. Metro Vancouver has been posting signs like the one below all over the city to publicize the ban, which went into effect on Jan. 1.


City Lab’s Kriston Capps reports on the program’s shaky start:


Regardless, the initial program did manage to collect over 330,500 lbs. of food scraps, which is a big improvement from 0.

“Food waste accounts for about 40 percent of our garbage,” said Metro Vancouver board chair Greg Moore. “By removing it from the landfill, we improve our environment and create valuable resources like compost and energy.”

http://www.salon.com/2015/01/15/vancouvers_brilliant_answer_to_food_waste/

smart. should do it throughout NA.

Our local council has had a "City to Soil" programme for years. The council provide "Green Bins" for kitchen and garden waste, which is then composted and sold back to residents to improve their soil, landscaping etc.

And although methane is a much stronger greenhouse gas than CO2 it breaks down naturally in the atmosphere over a period of about 10 years (although it does produce CO2 in the process).

My biggest worry (being in the managing end of apartments/condos) with the program in either those or in a neighborhood would be people who pay no attention to the guidelines and throw all of their waste into the bins. That can create a lot of work and could ruin a perfect compost.

The recycle program here already has a problem sorting through the crap people toss out as recyclable.

The majority of people are lazy idiots when it comes to this sort of thing.........jmo

It works here. But its a part of the household garbage collection service.

Our city recycling is also part of the garbage service for houses. Still, the money and time spent separating the bags of dog poop (as the owner's walk by with their dog when the bins are out) or regular garbage that people toss in from actual recyclables is irritating.

In our city they may make recycling mandatory for everyone, including multifamily apartments/condos AND make the individual properties contract a private service to pick it up. It will be nearly impossible to do that at our property. Large recycle bins that can only go outside because we have no space inside, which will take up the space of one garbage bin, causing the already bulging garbage bins to be overrun. Yeah, that should be a breeze and the bins will be pristine examples of recyclables.

As I said. A lot of people are lazy and stupid.

Montreal has been using the methane as fuel for a couple of decades. They used to simply burn it off.