Many people throw their kitchen food scraps straight into the rubbish bin, believing that it will decompose and therefore have a minimal environmental impact. However, that’s simply not how it works.

This year, the Nelson City Council has been running a food waste trial. More than 100 households have chosen to take part in the initiative, which has seen a lot of success so far; on average, this project has collected more than 5 kg of waste from each household per week. This waste would have otherwise ended up in the landfill.

When food waste is composted correctly, it doesn’t produce methane at all. The microbes that create it are not activated during the composting process. The initial findings of this trial suggest that it could prevent the production of around 1500 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year and 2850 tonnes of methane.

Larger cities picking up on this initiative could have a considerable impact. Christchurch is one such larger population centre that may be able to have a bigger impact. If you think about implementing this in all the kitchens in Christchurch, the results could have a significant influence on the future of climate change in our country. With the government aiming to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050 and reduce methane emissions 10% by 2030, it is schemes like this that could support the achievement of these lofty goals.

Currently, it is often a lack of knowledge that results in households choosing not to compost leftover food scraps. Many people don’t realise that when they send these to landfill, they are contributing to our methane and carbon dioxide emissions. So, a scheme like this could have an effect that contributes towards climate change twofold – reducing emissions by composting but also educating families on the importance of doing so.

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