When food scraps are buried in landfills, they cause harm in the form of methane, a greenhouse gas. It’s estimated that a head of lettuce would take 25 years to completely break down in a landfill, emitting methane all that time, and be so contaminated with other non-organic waste that the resources in it could not be recovered.

Though the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide has been given many more news articles, methane is the greenhouse gas we should be paying more attention to. If we focus on reducing it we will see a much quicker ecological response in terms of reducing the Earth’s temperature. “Cutting methane is the single fastest, most effective opportunity to reduce climate change risks in the near term,” says atmospheric scientist Ilissa Ocko in her TEDtalk titled The fastest way to slow climate change now.

Reducing landfill waste can reduce air pollution and associated respiratory illnesses such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and pneumonia, thereby improving the health of the vulnerable communities that live near landfills.

If we can divert food scraps from landfills through any of the many forms of composting or anaerobic digestion, we can recover some of the nutrients and energy extant in them to benefit the soil and indirectly benefit us.

When compost is added to soil, it adds nutrients that benefit us in a few critical ways: more successful seed germination, greater ability to retain water, and less need for chemical fertilizers. It improves soil health which can reduce food scarcity and improve nutrition.

The further we have moved away from an agrarian lifestyle, the less connection we have to our food production and practices like composting that are connected with that production.