Each year, Americans throw away an astonishing 133 billion pounds of food — about 40% of all food produced in the country. That’s the equivalent of tossing out a full meal for every person, every day. By weight, food waste is the #1 item in U.S. landfills.
Each of us has more power than we realize. By changing what goes into our garbage Bags — especially food scraps—we can make a meaningful difference for our climate and our community.
Here are the simple facts:
1. Food scraps thrown in the trash end up in landfills, where they generate methane — a climate pollutant far more powerful than carbon dioxide.
2. Redirecting food scraps is easy — and when composted, they become a valuable resource instead of pollution.
More food than you think
Try this easy experiment: Put your scraps and leftovers aside at the next one or two meals, including broccoli stalks, green bean ends, pizza crust, uneaten portions, egg shells, peels and cores, stale crackers, moldy blueberries, etc. Then take a look at how much food waste this produced. I’m guessing you see a lot more than you had predicted.
When I make a meal (full disclosure, I eat a lot of vegetables), I can fill a compost jar or bag — yes, in just one meal. In a landfill, these scraps become a powerful source of planet-warming greenhouse gasses. In landfills, food is covered over and buried without oxygen, causing it to decompose anaerobically and release methane, a gas much more harmful than carbon dioxide. In fact, methane traps 28 times more heat in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide. When food decomposes with oxygen — as in composting — it produces carbon dioxide instead, which has a far lower climate impact and can be redirected to beneficial uses.
Landfills are now the third-largest source of methane in the nation, largely due to decomposing food.
“If global food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, right behind China and the United States,” as stated in the Food Waste Index Report 2024.
Think about it this way: Every banana peel, coffee ground or pizza crust in the trash is like a tiny engine running somewhere out of sight, warming our world, one meal at a time. According to EPA estimates, the climate impact of the average household’s wasted food is roughly equivalent to driving a car over 1,000 miles per year. When we toss out food, we’re not just wasting dinner; we’re driving a car down the highway for over 1,000 miles, spewing invisible exhaust into the sky.
“Every small act of awareness adds up,” said Elaine Leahy, executive director of Sustainable Marblehead. “When just one family starts composting or cuts their food waste, it inspires another to do the same and that’s how real change happens. If every household in Marblehead made even one simple shift, such as saving leftovers, composting scraps, or sharing excess food, we could keep tons of waste out of our landfill each year. One small change can really have a big impact.”
Starting is easy
In a small town like ours, each and every one of us can make a positive difference, if we’re willing. While the town doesn’t offer curbside composting yet, we do have plenty of options, some quite simple. For example: • Start small: Save vegetable peels, banana peels, coffee grounds and other table scraps and leftovers. Keep them out of your garbage. Bring your scraps to our town Transfer Station and deposit into the Black Earth bins there. What could be easier? And it’s free with your sticker!
• Use Black Earth: Black Earth provides a compost bin to collect your scraps and will pick up at your house on a weekly basis at a reasonable price.
• DIY $$: Buy The Mill. It churns your leftovers into compostables that resemble (and can be used for) chicken feed. You can also compost them in your garden, give to Black Earth or put in your compost bin outside. Not inexpensive but oh-so-easy.
• DIY $: For less cash outlay than a Mill, buy a compost bin and start your own low-impact, climate-friendly composting process.
• DIY: Buy a compost bin and start your own low-impact, climate-friendly composting process.
• Start a neighborhood compost hub. Gather a few households and share one compost bin in a convenient location.
• Freeze your scraps (vegetable peels, coffee grounds, fruit cores) and drop them off at a local farm or community garden that composts.
• Try “scrap cooking.” Save carrot tops for pesto, use citrus peels for natural cleaners or turn stale bread into croutons.
• Donate, don’t dump. Share excess food with pantries, churches or neighbors.
No matter which option you choose, the most important step is simply starting. “Food waste is one of the simplest climate actions any household can tackle — and one of the few that saves you money at the same time,” according to ReFED Insights, 2024.
When food rots in a landfill, it doesn’t disappear; it turns into invisible heat-trapping gas. But when it’s composted, it becomes nourishment for the earth, helping gardens grow and building resilience in our local ecosystems.
Just imagine
Imagine a community where kitchen scraps from Sunday dinners help nourish local gardens, schoolyard green space or pollinator beds. It’s not just an environmental win — it’s a chance to build connection, resilience and pride in place.
As one Marblehead resident recently put it, “Once I saw how easy it was to compost, I couldn’t unsee how much we were wasting before. It’s changed how I think about food entirely.”
All the peels, shells, coffee grounds and more that you divert from the trash is a quiet act of climate care, and a reminder that small town actions can have a big global impact. By thinking creatively and working together, our town can turn waste into nourishment for the planet. Every peel, shell and scrap is a chance to do some good.
After all, we’re not just throwing away food. We’re choosing what kind of future we grow together.
Lunch box savings
Reducing food waste starts early and lunch boxes are a great place to begin. Tips to reduce the waste from your children’s lunch box from the FDA:
- Have kids help you prepare their lunch or give them 2-3 options to choose from to get them more interested in their food.
- Pay attention to uneaten food that comes back home in the lunch box each day so that you know what to avoid packing in future lunches.
- Check your fridge to see what you have and what needs to be used when preparing school lunches (and before heading to the grocery store). Use ingredients or favorite dinner leftovers that may be going bad in a few days.
By Amy Berenson, a Marblehead resident, Sustainable Marblehead member and environmental advocate believes that small changes can add up to a more sustainable world.
