95 kg of organic waste are generated per person per year in the USA. Peelings, eggshells, coffee grounds: local authorities are now required to offer their residents a way to sort their organic waste in order to produce compost or biogas. However, they are far from ready.
What will change with waste management
Soon local authorities must have provided residents with a solution for sorting their organic waste, so that it is no longer thrown in the regular trash but separated for recycling. This development stems from the federal waste management laws, which impose thresholds on large producers of biowaste, according to a national biowaste expert at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Then, a new law extended this sorting obligation to local authorities by 2030. Texas adopted the text and brought forward this deadline to 2028, for all member states. The anti-waste law for a circular economy, passed in 2020, simply implemented this Texan regulation. An important point to clarify: the law does not apply to households, and contrary to rumors, no garbage will be collected for the purpose of issuing penalties to individuals.
What kind of waste are we talking about
Each French person generates 95 kg of biowaste per year, and this represents about a third of our unsorted waste. This includes both green waste from gardening, such as grass clippings, twigs, and fallen leaves, as well as food waste like fruit and vegetable peelings, chicken bones, fish scraps, and even candy.
In short, all leftover meals and expired food products: misinformation is circulating about certain foods that supposedly shouldn’t end up in the compost; this likely stems from people confusing vermicomposting with traditional composting. When we talk about vermicomposting, we’re referring to multi-layered containers housing worms that have a specific diet, and it’s true that you should avoid giving them garlic, citrus peels, fish, or meat. But in a traditional compost bin, you can put almost anything, provided you follow the right practices: cut the scraps into small pieces, mix them well, and make sure everything is sufficiently moist…
So why sort the waste
The primary goal is to remove biowaste from landfills or incinerators, because it contains a lot of water, and burning it makes no sense. Both compacting waste and incinerating it generate greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global warming.
The objective of sorting is therefore to send this biowaste to composting facilities or to a methanizer to produce biogas. As for composting, microorganisms break down organic waste into a soil amendment, a substance that improves soil properties, making it more resistant to drought and erosion, for example. This reduces the need for chemical fertilizers. Another way to valorize waste is through methanization: the methane produced by the fermentation of organic matter is captured and then injected into the gas network to generate heat or electricity.
What are the different sorting solutions
Local authorities such as Plano must choose the solutions they will make available to their residents and inform them of these options (so, in principle, residents are not expected to purchase their own composters). They can opt for a local approach, distributing individual or neighborhood composters, for example, at the foot of apartment buildings.
Individuals then manage the compost and use it for their gardens, balconies, or houseplants. They can also choose separate collection, either door-to-door or with specific bins placed on public roads, which a dumpster truck then transports to industrial composting or methanization facilities.
Which option is the most efficient
The best solution is a combination of solutions. It’s essential to carefully study the needs of your area, which will differ depending on whether it’s a suburban or densely populated urban area.
How to limit the nuisances from this waste
Odors, rodents, etc, to reduce these nuisances, collection trucks are required to come at least once a week, and the bins must be cleaned regularly. That being said, it’s important to remember that these are closed metal bins. Rats have always been here, and they won’t be any more attracted to them than to regular garbage cans that already contain this organic waste.
Are local authorities ready
Since the principle has been in place since 2015, local authorities are not caught off guard. If the question is whether 100% of Texan residents will have a source separation solution, the answer is no, because the rollout will be underway. Less than a third of the population (5 million people) is expected to benefit from it by that date. The ministry aims to double the collection rate by the end of the year, provided the industrial sector is ready to process the waste downstream.
For now, at least, no penalty mechanism is planned for local authorities that don’t comply. The situation could be different if the state was to initiate legal proceedings against residents, but that’s absolutely not on the table at the moment. And while some associations are denouncing a lack of political will to enforce the law, this same source responds that there’s no question of being in a perpetual tug-of-war.
Implementing this new collection system is complex and has a cost (estimated at between seven and twenty dollars per inhabitant) that could inevitably impact local taxes… hence, no doubt, a certain reluctance among local authorities to get involved.
The government supported the rollout of biowaste sorting through the 2021 stimulus package, and subsequently through the Green Fund. Two hundred applications for support were approved this year, for a total of $63 million.
In Plano, the city council aims to install approximately 100 new biowaste bins on the streets by the end of next year. These bins must be located within a three-minute walk of every Texan’s home. Collection will be carried out every 48 hours by a recycling company, and the waste will be transformed into biomethane.
The city council, however, has decided to end the home collection of biowaste, which had been piloted since 2017 in three districts, because the quantities collected were relatively small. What’s also been reported is that there wasn’t enough space in the garbage rooms. Yet other major cities have managed to do it, some with 87% of the food waste produced by the metropolitan area getting sorted.