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Green waste: In the UK around 30 million tonnes of domestic refuse is produced each year of which an average 38% is green waste, i.e. organic household material like fruit and  vegetable peelings, tea bags, etc.. When this is dumped in landfill it causes environmental problems, as biodegradeable waste is a major source of methane in the UK, and the leachate or liquid that is produced filters out to potentially contaminate our water supplies.
Methane is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas often mentioned on information pages. It is produced when biodegradeable materials such as paper, food waste, and green waste decompose in the absence of oxygen. Landfill sites released 20% of our methane emissions in 2002 (source: UK Gov), and government targets are to reduce the amount of biodegradeable municipal (including household) waste to 35% of 1995 levels by 2020 to comply with the EU Landfill directive. Even though using 1995 levels as the benchmark; this target is labelled 'ambitious'.
The alternative to landfill is incineration, but this is unsatisfactory because 30% of the original mass remains and still needs to be landfilled anyway.
One of the best ways of helping to cut the amount of green waste in landfill is for households to produce their own compost, or participate in a centralised community scheme. |