Composting is a mainstay in policy promoting green, equitable waste disposal. Of the big three signature bins scattered about Berkeley, compost is often the most innocuous; lacking both the moral bludgeon of the landfill as well as the trifling balance of eco-friendliness and regulatory inconveniences associated with recycling. Indeed, the familiarity of the practice for the majority of people starts and ends at local garden bins. The reality is, composting has long since evolved past this quaintness. Proponents of biodegradation advocate its merit as a solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and food waste. With a global market projected to value 11.82 billion by 2028, the viability of biodegradables warrants a reevaluation. In doing so, greater insight must be given into Berkeley's compostables policy in order to critically analyze the current composting industry and glean what the future of biodegradables hold in the struggle for climate justice.
Composting itself is a relatively simple biological occurrence; microorganisms, like worms and fungi, break down material into smaller and smaller compounds, until, it is absorbed into soil. The material in question ranges from landscape clippings, to food scraps, to forestry byproducts. Most relevant in the final category is compostable paper products. The majority of recyclable waste policy concerns one, the production of compostables and encouraging their consumption and secondly, promoting and facilitating the effective disposal and relocation of compostable waste to treatment facilities.
San Francisco is a model for recycling legislation, requiring all residents to separate their waste into their respective bins for disposal. In practice, this requires the university to remain in compliance with Alameda county's Organics Reduction and Recycling Ordinance, the mandate behind the iconic three multicolor bin lineup. Cal's recycling initiatives are often spearheaded in close collaboration with Berkeley Dining, as managing food waste is a fulcrum in advancing composting efforts and in offsetting the negative climate impacts of organic waste in landfills. Developing and distributing biodegradable disposables is another key aspect in increasing accessibility. Initiatives to ensure all single use utensils and packaging are recyclable and compostable has been a focal point of student lead sustainability action. But what actually happens to all the unsold food in the dining halls, or the packaging tossed in the bin? When an item is disposed of in one of the many green bins on campus, it is shipped off either to the West Contra Costa Landfill in Richmond or the City of Berkeley Transfer station, where It is then diverted to recycling and compost facilities. In this case, the West Contra Costa Landfill processes its recycling and compost on-site at a facility located at the foot of Parr Boulevard in Richmond. After being processed into a renewable fertilizer, it is sold in bulk either as "potting mix" or "soil amendment" to be utilized by farms and landscapers. The city of Berkeley also facilitates a free compost program providing free microbial fertilizer to Berkeley residents for domestic use year round at the Marina. Municipal sites based in San Francisco mostly supply local farms, but this market extends internationally.
It’s easy to attribute a level of benevolence to composting, whether that be through greenwashing or our own homely conceptions of the process; but it's paramount to remember these policies wouldn't come into fruition without sizable economic backing. Even food waste is commodified in new, burgeoning markets, where the business model lies within treating this organic waste and converting it into fertilizer. Spawning a cleaner, effective soil amendment out of would be fodder for landfills. The USDA estimates approximately 40% of all food produced within the United States is sequestered primarily at the retail level, suggesting that the solution requires more than just green lifestyle changes or at home bins; this waste has to be processed on a grand scale somewhere.
Organic material comprises nearly 50% of all waste disposed of at these Californian facilities. Organic waste collection facilities operate similarly to landfills, garnering profit via tipping fees from those seeking to dispose of biodegradables. The key difference is output; according to the EPA, municipal landfills are the third largest contributor of Methane into the atmosphere, generating a combined 3.7 tons of methane emitted into the atmosphere annually. This is because the prerogative of these landfills is to essentially suffocate organics under a mass of dirt to induce anaerobic decomposition, a process which produces high levels of methane and carbon dioxide, by and large the two most prominent GHGs. Composting alternatively opts for putrefaction through microorganisms like bacteria and fungi, breaking down the matter into nutrient dense and, critically, reusable as a soil amendment. Thus, less material is left squandered in landfills, and climate change driving contaminants are mitigated.
It's crucial to note the prosperity of this growing circular economy has the potential for grand implications on food systems; both in terms of mitigating our staggering food waste and on the production end, remediating soil health and incentivizing alternative farming methods. The largest market for compost is agriculture; primarily industrial farms which rightfully have earned the ire of many environmentalists for contributing heavily to soil depletion, runoff, and GHG emissions.
Chief among these anti-environmental malpractices are synthetic fertilizers, manufactured using anthropogenic chemicals and fossil fuels, are attributed to widespread nitrogen and phosphorus contamination which impede ecosystem functioning, implicate human health, and degrade soils long term. In 2021 the U.S. produce sector disseminated approximately 19 million metric tons of fertilizer, with at least 15 of those tons being nitrogen and phosphorus based. Substances which through prolonged use hardens and changes the PH balance of arable soils, retarding their ability to absorb nutrients, all the while killing off biodiverse microorganisms and organics that would otherwise enrich the land. This massive over application of synthetic chemicals has created a feedback loop, where the more soil integrity and structure are compromised, increased fertilizers must then be used to reify farmable lands; amplifying contamination, climate change, and destructive land use practices. Compost is a light in the dark, producing renewable amendments containing lower concentrations of these nutrients, fostering continued health and remediating structural damage. A widespread adoption of biodegradable based amendments would significantly reduce GHG emissions and bolster food sustainability.
Commercial Composting suffers from the same complications as any enterprise developing into a consolidated industry; is it sustainable, and is it economically sound? Environmentally, compost contamination is a major concern and is a lot more likely to occur at these expansive sites. Physical contaminants arriving with biodegradables like glass, plastics, and harmful bacteria must be manually separated from potential fertilizer, a process prone to ineffectiveness. Pollution like this is pernicious both due to the environmental consequences, the proliferation of heavy metals and microplastics within soil, and in its undermining the efficiency of the field and its ability to promulgate a sustainable, circular economy. Another huge issue with feedstock is its lack of participation on a consumer level. Based on a 2024 study by the national waste recycling association Only 27% of the US population has and utilizes readily available access to sites or collection programs for composting, while 67% of non-composters concede they "would be willing to do it if it were convenient in their community" (Noto, A. 2022). Even with public disengagement, Supply is overwhelmingly abundant, and demand for compost is only increasing. What is needed now is investment; transporting and decomposing food scraps is an intricate and expensive process, but one that can be fostered through development of smaller scale, localized sites, which would increase public access. Thus, simultaneously promoting public participation and streamlining the industry through cuts in transportation costs and facilitating easier management. Closing these policy and infrastructure gaps would go a long way in propelling the enterprise forward.
An overlooked yet incredibly revelatory aspect of a net-zero economy is, counterintuitively, the socio-economic benefits. Again, these policies are not formulated and enacted out of charity. The market was valued at $7.23 billion by the end of 2023 and is projected to steadily grow at an impressive annual rate of 9%. It's also an untapped resource for occupations in clean energy. A case study done in Maryland showed that "for every $10 million invested, composting facilities in Maryland support twice as many jobs as landfills and 17 times more jobs than incinerators."(Clean Water Action, 2020). Expanding composting operations create a myriad of jobs, from on site inspectors, processors, manual laborers, to environmental scientists and technicians.
Ultimately, the industry is still the overall most sustainable and financially promising option. An individualized, decentralized approach to composting would be inadequate in processing every subset of biodegradable, especially for denser variants like forestry products or bioplastics, large scale facilities prove a necessary asset in advancing the practice.
