Not mandating food composting shocks those new to Fairfax County, where taxpayers had provided a total approved budget increase this year of 4.82% or 498.25 million dollars. This means taxpayers already spend millions of dollars on waste management. Educated taxpayers want to reduce waste, reduce their carbon footprints, and make the county more sustainable.
Now, Fairfax County stands at a critical point in its solid waste management practices, which means that implementing a county-wide composting program could significantly save precious landfill space, create local jobs and benefit the community by reducing waste, decreasing food thrown in trash and transforming food waste into vital soil. By expanding food composting Fairfax County can further reduce methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas created when food scraps are anaerobically decomposed. Municipal solid waste systems contribute nearly 15% of all methane emitted. Composting will make our environment healthier in the long run, provide numerous volunteer opportunities and decrease the costs associated with throwing away food that normally makes up about 24% of all solid waste in municipal waste systems.
Right here in our county, students want to reduce their carbon footprint by composting food waste rather than sending it to landfills. The World Wildlife Fund estimates the possibility of diverting approximately 530,000 tons of food waste from all public schools across the U.S. by composting food waste. By examining similar programs across the country from South Carolina to Washington state, Fairfax County can find a blueprint for future successful community composting. For example, South Carolina’s Recycling Naturally composting program, a program that has been working to help divert food waste from landfills, to educate the community locally with an educational program component and to save from the municipal landfill up to 30% of total trash tonnage which food waste and yard waste items makeup annually.
Now, more than ever, composting remains a powerful tool in the fight against climate change. In Fairfax County, a pilot food scraps composting program diverted 22 tons of food scraps in 2021 from landfills through willing residents dropping off their compost to monitored bins located at eleven weekly farmers’ markets across the county run by the Fairfax County Park Authority. This program eliminated an estimated 20 tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions, which is equivalent to removing dozens of vehicles from the roadways. I believe this is what many residents would consider positive government action.
Keeping compost in the area where it was created is best for the environment; we know that when compost stays in the area where it was created, this will reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by moving it elsewhere. This might encourage more local community gardens where compost will be used to improve soil quality, teach pesticide-reduced growing practices and grow food for those in need in the county. Composting in Fairfax County, like other like-minded communities, can further promote a cleaner, healthier environment, which residents want.
Implementing a mandated composting program in Fairfax County is not just a possibility — it’s a necessity. Food waste in landfills will not get oxygen or sunshine, which are necessary for it to become healthy soil, making composting very important to protect the environment. Composting will improve soil quality and will draw more carbon into the soil which allows the soil to store this carbon long term. Fairfax County implementing composting throughout the county, especially for county buildings like schools, will teach students about composting, will start students’ families into the habit of composting, and will guarantee its greater acceptance in the county’s numerous diverse communities.
Although concerns against expanding composting may exist, such as the apprehension that composting attracts pests, these concerns can be averted with careful implementation and analysis of how these issues were handled by other communities before expanding county-wide composting here. It is possible to successfully expand Fairfax County’s composting through education, proper collection receptacles with tightly sealing lids, and effective problem analysis. Creating a community specific process of expanded composting in a way that will reduce any risk to community standards and safety may seem elusive, but successful composting is very possible in Fairfax County. Making composting accepted like recycling will greatly decrease the county’s carbon footprint.
Moving Fairfax County towards required composting may not be problem free, but there are predictable steps needed in order to execute it safely, conveniently, and smoothly. And while there are many reasons why countywide composting should be implemented, even if it’s not, it’s important to know the difference you can make simply by composting your own organic food and yard waste on a regular basis. Join others in the county in the “Sustainable Fairfax Challenge: Empower a Greener Future” with a goal of saving “1000 tons of CO2 by March 2026” as we move to make composting something the county supports on a more widespread basis.