Composting: A Drawdown Georgia Solution for Emissions Reduction

You’ve heard the Livable Buckhead team talk about our love for composting, but did you know it’s listed as one of Drawdown Georgia’s solutions to achieve significant emissions reduction?

Drawdown Georgia was inspired by Project Drawdown, the world’s leading resource for taking action on climate change. It provides a state specific road map for how Georgia can do its part to accelerate progress toward net zero greenhouse gas emissions. The Drawdown Georgia initiative identifies 20 high-impact solutions that make the most sense for Georgia: those with a strong track record that are cost-competitive and market-ready. And composting is one of them!

Why is composting on the list?

When food waste and other organic materials decompose in landfills, methane is released. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. But when we compost our organic materials, instead of sending them to the landfill, the organic matter is broken down by microbes into nutrient-rich, carbon-sequestering fertilizer.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, food and yard waste together make up more than 30% of what we throw away. This material could be composted instead to create nutrient rich soil that can be used for gardening and agriculture.

A number of us on the LBI team compost at home using CompostNow: a service that picks up our food scraps and other compostable waste and turns it into nutrient rich compost. Check out our stats below to see the impact we’ve made so far. Between just four of us, we’ve diverted enough to offset 11,537 miles driven by a car!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And for those that want to start composting themselves, Drawdown Georgia has a “How to Compost at Home in Georgia” Toolkit that walks you through the process of starting your own compost system at home.