Biocontrol and IPM can be a difficult topic to write about on a regular basis. The science is fairly static — or it seems to be — and most writers we know of tend to do the same thing we do: Rewrite and refresh old material. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Having old stuff in a top position puts it in the hands of newcomers which eat it up voraciously. Moreover, as we age and refine our thinking, the most current draft is usually the best draft. What’s all this lead-in for, you may wonder. You caught us. It’s an excuse to branch out into other environmental topics of possible interest to you. Such as landfills.
Landfill Constituents
We saw a graphical chart in volume 5, issue 4 (September, 2009) of the USPS’s Deliver Magazine detailing the percentages of primary landfill components, as follows, in a simple text list form:
- Standard mail items: 2.1%
- Disposable diapers: 2.2%
- Newspapers and magazines: 2.3%
- Glass beer and soft drink bottles: 3.0%
- Clothing and footwear: 4.2%
- Corrugated boxes: 4.9%
- Furniture and furnishings: 5.5%
- Yard trimmings: 6.9%
- Food scraps: 18.2%
The numbers were derived from the EPA’s 2007 MSW Characterization Report and is not inclusive of all MSW items (thus the numbers do not total 100%).
Interesting?! We Meant Appalling
When we saw those numbers we were appalled. We had to ask: are you serious? Yard trimmings and food scraps make up the bulk of the bulk? That is so fixable it’s almost laughable if it weren’t such a sad fact. Let’s look at these two.
Yard Trimmings: If you have a yard to trim and take away from, then you have a yard in which you can compost in and return nutrients to. Yard trimmings in landfills should be reduced to zero percent. End of story.
Food Scraps: Obviously in the United States we waste a lot of food. The intricacies of a solution here are a little more difficult, but not much if one wants to become hardcore logical. Stop wasting food, give to the needy what will be wasted (a logistics nightmare no, doubt), and, again, compost what can be composted. Give it back to the earth in a good way. We can do better.
If this, to you, is a digression, we apologize. We’ll try to come up with some juicy biocontrol and IPM goodness as soon as we can. Once the catalog is done it gets easier. Stay tuned.
