As to getting households to participate, the best way is — here we go again — to make composting mandatory, say the M.I.T. researchers. That probably won\u2019t happen in the beginning, as municipalities start with opt-in pilot programs. But, in the long run, it\u2019s going to have to be compulsory if it\u2019s going to work, and, unfortunately, mandates have political implications.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s in?<\/h3>\n

San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver and New York have composting mandates. West Hartford CT, Milwaukee WI and many other areas have initiated pilot programs. Other cities, while not yet mandating food-waste composting, have established zero-waste goals for themselves. These cities\u2014including Austin, Minneapolis, Oakland, Washington DC, Dallas, Takoma Park MD, Malibu CA, and San Diego\u2014would seem to be moving, inevitably, toward area-wide, government-funded food-waste composting programs.<\/p>\n

But wait, there’s more<\/h3>\n

But as high-minded\u2014and ultimately necessary\u2014as these goals and efforts are, there\u2019s still more to be done. We can\u2019t just rely on governments to get this job done. It\u2019s clear that individual behaviors have to change as well.<\/p>\n

The M.I.T. study asserts that success will also depend on motivating \u201cwaste generators\u201d\u2014meaning people, corporations and institutions\u2014to participate in food-waste composting at high levels and to separate organic materials properly to minimize contamination.<\/p>\n

At an even higher level, we need to figure out how to motivate ourselves to avoid creating wasted food in the first place. We need to to shop smarter, plan our food use more efficiently, and\u2014bottom line — eat\u00a0 more of the food we buy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Too lazy to compost? Yeah, me too. But with an emerging service, known as curbside food-waste pickup, people like us can feel less guilty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":39441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1726,994,451,1997],"tags":[2527,3328,3329],"yoast_head":"\n