FOOD
BENEFITS OF COMPOSTING CompostableLA shares tips for reducing holiday food waste STORY BY MICHELE ROBINSON | PHOTO COURTESY OF COMPOSTABLELA
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onique Figueiredo started CompostableLA, a womanrun 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 says. “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 says. “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, (Continued on page 30)
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Monique Figueiredo started CompostableLA, a woman-run community composting business that serves all of the Westside and turns food scraps into superfood for soil.
