How much solid waste do you think people, schools and businesses generate each year in Massachusetts?

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What happens when we throw things away? Where does it go?

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Our state generates over 8 million Tons of solid waste each year!

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When you throw things “away”, there is no simple away!

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~⅓ of waste in MA is recycled or composted

The rest is:

• Burned in incinerators
• Or buried in lined landfills (limited capacity)
• Or shipped out state for disposal

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~1/4 of our state’s trash is made of valuable food scraps.

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Food scraps are NOT trash; they

can make nutrient-rich soil

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Why Compost?

• Fights climate change
• Reduces Methane emissions- a powerful greenhouse gas (28x more potent than CO2)
• Every 1000 tons of food waste in the landfill releases 34 metric tons of harmful methane
• Enriches the soil, stores carbon &
• helps reduce water loss
• Composting (aerobic decomposition) is nature’s healthy way to recycle!

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Composting benefits people & the planet!

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How?

• Local company: Black Earth Compost

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• Picks up the school’s food scraps weekly→ turn food scraps into healthy, nutrient-rich compost , “ black gold”

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• Some of their compost is donated to local organizations & farms that grow food for people in need

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What can you compost:

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