Proper Allocation of Organic Waste to Better Fight Climate Change in Los Angeles
World Hunger is one of the biggest challenges facing the Human Race as we move further into the 21st century. Hundreds of millions of people are malnourished and one in four people are suffering from nutrient instability (Roser). Living in a first-world country, it is very easy to lose sight of this issue, and as it is America’s nature to consume, consume, and keep consuming, nutrients in our society have lost their value. As a result, American’s waste between 30–40% of their food supply; in monetary terms, American’s throw out $162 million worth of food every year(Food Waste in America). The danger of this way of life is that biorganics, when decomposed, produce biomethane, which is a very dangerous factor concerning Global Warming and Climate Change(Smith Lecture). The actions taken by our state government branch out into three categories: landfill, composting, and anaerobic digestion. This research evaluates each of those three terminal locations of organic waste.
Given that California is the United States’ foremost supplier of pricey agriculture, there are tons of organic waste being produced at farms and vineyards throughout the state. More locally, however, the city of Los Angeles is not responsible for the growth of these goods, but the consumption, as we are the most densely populated area in California. Being the biggest urban metropolis in California comes with some enormous downsides, most importantly to this research is the amount of food waste that we produce and what we do with it. The applications for food waste reuse are integral for future development, especially as the human race tries to phase out our fossil fuel dependency and look towards sustainable and reusable energy.
Landfills have been the foremost solution for trash in the United States. Like many of America’s problems, our solution was to literally sweep it under the rug and wait for something to go wrong. Suficit to say, things went wrong. When bio waste is exposed to landfill conditions, it begins to decompose inside this underground pile of garbage and, as a result, produces large amounts of methane gas. Essentially the natural gas that is obtained from fracking and drilling is being produced by food waste inside landfills. The issue with the method of biomethane production, besides the fact that we are trying to hide our trash, is that it cannot properly be cultivated and used efficiently. Subsequently, landfills often burn this natural gas with no productive means besides eliminating the smell and keeping the methane from further deteriorating our atmosphere(Smith Lecture). Furthermore, this biogas can be absorbed by the soil around it and impact the natural ecosystems in the area, especially if it contaminates an underground water source(Smith Lecture). In Los Angeles, 12 million tons of Municipal Solid Waste is generated annually and 76% of that is recycled(Okkels Larson). This statistic shows that Los Angeles is the best city in America when it comes to recycling our waste. Additionally it shows that policies implemented in the city of Los Angeles that mandate recycling and other waste alternatives are working the way they should and providing positive change. All in all, landfills should be a last resort for waste, especially bio organic waste.
The next alternative for food waste is composting, an organic way of recycling food. The process of composting involves aerobic bacteria breaking down organic waste and releasing all sorts of nutrients stored inside. The products of composting are compost, essentially fertilizer that is nutrient rich to the max and is great for mixing with soil when growing crops. The benefits of composting are tremendous as it provides a way for organic waste to be recycled for the betterment of society. Perhaps the most progressive and eco-friendly aspect of composting is that there is no biomethane produced when the composting process is exposed to oxygen. Unfortunately, there is one really big downside to composting, and it says a lot about our society. Compost sites tend to release a pretty pungent odor as a product of aerobic bacteria’s natural digestion process. This smell is a real reason for why many people don’t tend to compost and raises the “not in my backyard” dilemma. This problem is that people love the idea of composting, but tend to stay away from it because they don’t want the smell to be a factor in their life. This problem people have with composting won’t be an issue in the future as more people, hopefully, realize the impacts of climate change and take up arms to help in the fight. Recently, people in LA have even discussed composting human bodies as an alternative to cremation, which contributes a pretty large amount of carbon emissions each year (The Times Editorial Board). The composting of human bodies recently became a legal alternative to cremation in Washington State, and Angelino sentiment toward the matter, and composting in general, shows that this “not in my backyard” attitude is not a part of LA culture(The Times Editorial Board).
The last of these food waste alternatives is anaerobic digestion. Anaerobic digestion is a process which breaks down organic waste using anaerobic bacteria and, from a maximization standpoint, AD is the best thing that people could be doing with their organic wastes. Class A biosolids, nutrient rich fertilizers, are produced as a byproduct of anaerobic digestion (Iranpour). In a study done at the Hyperion Treatment Plant in Los Angeles, it was shown that it is possible to reduce the amount of methane gas produced at AD facilities by lowering the temperature in the plant’s digesters as well as keeping the temperature relatively low during the transport of the fertilizers(Iranpour). Furthermore, a study by professors at the University of California and Rice University showed that the co-management of waste water and bioorganic waste could increase the energy recaptured by food waste by 62% when using an anaerobic biomembrane reactor(Becker). By using an anaerobic biomembrane reactor and co-managing waste water and organic waste, one facility is able to make sewage water potable for human consumption and use the sludge to make fertilizer and biomethane.
Alternate means of food waste are raising questions about how politics are going to combat climate change. With growing dissent from the GOP, environmentally friendly legislation faces a big uphill battle in a conservative senate. Meanwhile, the left is making progressive claims about what their policy looks like going into the future, take the Green New Deal. While both sides’ platforms use their political views to support their ideas, how taxes and government spending will be effected as well as potential economic growth/recession of attaining carbon neutrality, little progress has been made on a national scale. Thank you bi-partisan gridlock. More progressive states, like California and New York to name two, have laid the groundwork for future developments and are taking initiative. With California making it required for corporate entities to dispose of their waste by either composting or anaerobically digesting it and setting a recycling goal of 75% for food waste, change is on the way for this emerging issue (California). The state of California and the progress they have made are setting a tone for future environmentally friendly legislation, and the steps taken by the people and corporations of Los Angeles show that transitioning to a greener and more sustainable lifestyle is not only doable, but beneficial. The lifestyle choice made by Los Angelinos, please don’t let this be a jinx, foreshadows a change in the way people, inside and out of the US, perceive waste and energy.
Bibliography:
Becker AM, Yu K, Stadler LB, Smith AL. Co-management of domestic wastewater and food waste: A life cycle comparison of alternative food waste diversion strategies. Bioresource technology. 2017;223:131–140. doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2016.10.031
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“Composting to Avoid Methane Production.” Agriculture and Food, www.agric.wa.gov.au/climate-change/composting-avoid-methane-production.
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Iranpour, Reza et al. “Full-Scale Class A Biosolids Production by Two-Stage Continuous-Batch Thermophilic Anaerobic Digestion at the Hyperion Treatment Plant, Los Angeles, California.” Water environment research 78.11 (2006): 2244–2252. Web.
Okkels Larson, Signe. “LOS ANGELES’ GROWING TRASH PROBLEM NEEDS NEW SOLUTIONS.” Los Angeles’ Growing Trash Problem Needs New Solutions, archive.uscstoryspace.com/2014–2015/signeokl/Capstone/la-trash-dilemma/.
Roser, Max, and Hannah Ritchie. “Hunger and Undernourishment.” Our World in Data, 8 Oct. 2013, ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment.
Smith, Adam. “Solid Waste.” Intro to Environmental Engineering, CE110, University of Southern California, 22 September 2020. Lecture.
The Times Editorial Board. “Editorial: We Compost Everything Else in California. Why Not Dead Bodies?” 4 Mar. 2020.
