How the US Economy and Environment can Both Benefit From Composting Management

Composting is one of the environmentally friendly ways of reducing organic waste. It is economically viable since it cuts costs associated with the hauling of wastes and enables farmers to reduce the use of fertilizers. Composting operations are relatively non-existent in the solid municipal waste sector, as the market has molded itself and grown into a standard bury-or-burn model. As humans are trying to address global warming. composting proves to be a promising climate change mitigation option, benefiting societies in terms of the environment, the economy, and overall health. This study projects that-with the current trends-by the end of 2030, the U.S. can increase the compost to waste ratio by 18% from 10%, reducing carbon emissions by 30 million tons a year while saving around 16 billion USD in municipal waste management costs. Analyzing the existing records in the OECD countries suggests that economic motives are not powerful enough to incentivize the industry/household toward composting. Stricter environmental policies can boost the composting volume by 214-574 thousand tons per year. Imposing waste taxes and penalties can give birth to a vast industry that has not yet flourished while the economic subsidies financed by the collected taxes and penalties can incentivize the private sector to further invest in composting.

Automated summary

Composting is an environmentally friendly way to reduce organic waste, with potential economic and climate change benefits. However, economic incentives alone are not enough to drive the growth of composting industry, stronger environmental policies and waste taxes are needed to incentivize private sector investment.