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Benefits of Composting CompostableLA shares tips for reducing holiday food waste PHOTOS COURTESY OF COMPOSTABLELA
Monique Figueiredo started CompostableLA, a woman-run community composting business that serves all of the Westside and turns food scraps into superfood for soil. PAGE 12 THE ARGONAUT NOVEMBER 25, 2021
By Michele Robinson onique Figueiredo started CompostableLA, a woman-run community composting business, in 2019 because she saw a need for this type of service on the Westside. “I wanted a convenient way to compost and it didn’t exist on the Westside, so I started it,” Figueiredo said. “Food waste is not waste, it is a resource. Nothing in nature is wasted. We can reuse it.” CompostableLA, which Figueiredo co-owns with Jamie Renee Williams, is the only curbside compost pick-up subscription service that serves all of the Westside from Playa Vista to Pacific Palisades and everywhere in between including Mar Vista, Palms, Westchester, Venice and Culver City. “The goal is to keep everything local,” Figueiredo said. “Keep these valuable resources in the community that produces it. From Westside to Westside. This way we give back locally.” Composting is the most ancient form of recycling — using something to make a resource for something else. Composting works by using microbes or worms to break down food waste and the end by-product is compost. Once it is broken down, it becomes nutrient-dense soil, not dead dirt. Composting is a great way to benefit the environment while giving back to the community. There are many benefits of composting including reducing greenhouse gas, creating healthy soil and growing more nutritious foods. The act of composting reduces greenhouse gases because when food waste is thrown away it produces methane gas due to the anaerobic conditions in the landfill. This gas is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide for approximately 20 years. However, when food scraps are composted, methane gas is not created. Additionally, composting creates healthy soil, which has better water retention (it can hold five times the weight in water)
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and pollution filtration abilities (it can remove 60 to 95 percent of stormwater pollutants). This is powerful because it can maximize absorption and storage of precious rainwater in drought situations. Healthy soil also takes the carbon dioxide out of the air and puts it in the ground, which is beneficial for the plants and reduces carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Healthy soil produces nutrient-rich foods because they come from the nutrient-dense soil. Compost is a soil amendment that restores microbes and serves as an organic fertilizer, which produces foods that are healthier for our bodies. “Healthy soil, healthy food, healthy humans, healthy planet,” Figueiredo said. There is a major difference between using organic fertilizer and synthetic fertilizer. Synthetic fertilizers gradually seep into the water supply and create ocean “dead zone” (an area in the ocean that is devoid of life), killing the animals and plants in that space. If you use natural fertilizer from compost, not only are living creatures not injured, it actually boosts the beneficial microbes that live in our soils. “Replace artificial plant food with compost,” Figueiredo recommended. Composting creates clean air and clean water, and community-based organizations like CompostableLA also support environmental justice. “It’s free, it’s a natural resource,” Figueiredo said. “Instead of throwing our scraps away, we can save costs and benefit the environment by reusing them. Waste is a human invention, not a natural one.”
CompostableLA compostablela.com lacompost.org/start-composting Instagram: @compostable.la
During the holidays when there is excess food waste, composting is a great way to benefit the environment while giving back to the community.
