Recycling Organic Waste: A Win-Win Proposition

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6:00 PM EST
Saturday, August 2, 1997

Recycling Organic Waste: A Win-Win Proposition

As landfills overflow and the costs of disposing of sewage and garbage rise, city leaders can relieve overextended municipal budgets, prevent the contamination of drinking water, and help farmers build healthier soils by recycling garbage and human waste back to farms, reports a new Worldwatch Institute Paper, Paper 135: Recycling Organic Waste: From Urban Pollutant to Farm Resource."

"Cities and large animal-raising facilities waste tons of natural wealth daily and pollute rivers, lakes, and oceans when they discard garbage, sewage, and manure," says Research Associate Gary Gardner, author of the report. "This is a colossal waste of a natural resource that could generate municipal income rather than drain city coffers for disposal and pollution cleanup."

The report, funded by the Wallace Genetic Foundation, notes that landfills are near capacity in many countries, and that their rotting organic material leaches acids into groundwater and releases methane gas into the atmosphere. At least 13 U.S. states have 10 years or less before all of their landfills are completely full. New York City will have to ship its garbage out of state in just four years.

Gardner says, "It is only a matter of habit that cities in the industrialized world spend tax money to get rid of organic nutrients. With a little thought they could turn this material into a revenue stream that would take a burden off taxpayers."

Planners in cash-poor and water-stressed cities in the developing world can "leapfrog" our Victorian-era water-wasting sewage systems by adopting more modern methods that convert sewage and garbage into usable, salable products. A low-water compost toilet system, such as that used in the province of Tanum, Sweden, could cost only one seventh as much as a water-intensive flush toilet/sewage plant system.

The report notes that once organic waste from cities and animal producers is treated to make it safe, it will have a ready market with farmers who are educated in its use. Gardner notes that human and other organic waste in industrial nations could supply 15 percent of the nutrients now supplied by fertilizer. Soils, drinking water and other industries would benefit from using composted garbage and treated human waste:

• Farms would use less artificial fertilizer because recycled organic matter contains many of the original nutrients taken up by crops.

• Fertilizer runoff into rivers and streams would be reduced because soil replenished with organic matter holds nutrients longer. Fertilizer runoff from the Corn Belt flows down the Mississippi River and creates a dead zone the size of New Jersey each year in the Gulf of Mexico, harming fisheries.

• Nitrates in drinking water would be reduced. Nitrate pollution from fertilizer overuse is one of the most serious water quality problems in Europe and North America. Every country in the European Union has some water supplies with nitrate levels that regularly exceed the allowable maximum. Consumed in excess, nitrates can cause cancer. In fact, they can lead to brain damage or even death.

• Use of fungicides could be reduced because compost promotes plant health. The humus in compost limits the spread of root rot as effectively as many fungicides, according to researchers at Ohio State University. Crop root diseases in China have increased markedly in the past two decades as artificial fertilizer replaced organic matter.

As international food trade extends across oceans, and as agricultural production becomes more specialized and intensified, accumulations of manure at livestock facilities lead to serious water pollution:

• The Netherlands and Taiwan import vast amounts of livestock feed but have not found a way to recycle the manure created back to farms. The Netherlands has nitrates in its groundwater at more than double the maximum allowable level. And in Taiwan, an estimated two-thirds of water pollution is from hog manure dumped into the country's waterways.
• Manure from Delaware's chicken farms could meet over half the state's crop nutrient needs, but large, centralized operations make distribution difficult. Where manure cannot be absorbed, it is dumped or overapplied, polluting waterways. Effluent from centralized livestock facilities accounts for more than a quarter of the water pollution caused by agriculture in the U.S.

Gardner notes that there has been progress in some countries. Some 23 U.S. states now divert grass clippings from landfills to composting or mulching. California composts 40% of its organic waste, and is aiming for 70% in just three years. More than a third of U.S. and European sewage sludge is now applied to land, though often with minimal safety precautions. But much more needs to be done, and "closing the organic loop" between cities, agribusiness and farms will take many different forms. He recommends that we --

• Educate all to treat organic matter as a resource. Successful programs can be replicated, such as the Sonoma County, California, program that taught homeowners to cut their input into landfills an average of 18 percent, and the programs in Maryland and the Netherlands that successfully reduce nutrient surpluses on farms.

• Keep organic matter out of landfills, rivers, and oceans. Already, the U.K. and some 23 U.S. states discourage dumping organic waste in landfills with taxes or regulation. The U.S. has also banned ocean dumping of sewage.

• Segregate organic wastes from other wastes. U.S. researchers found more than 60,000 toxic substances and chemical compounds in sewage sludge mixed with household and industrial waste, making it unfit for fertilizer use. Composting toilets or other systems that separate human and industrial waste would lower dramatically the cost of treating sewage.

• Restrict agricultural operations to environmentally supportable sizes. Operations likely to have large on-site nutrient imbalances should have a recycling plan that shows that nearby landowners are willing to receive their excess manure, and that the manure will be applied at rates that can be safely absorbed by those soils.

Gardner says, "We know that recycling paper, aluminum, and even old toilet bowls makes economic and ecological sense. It is now time that we recognize that recycling the nutrients in garbage, manure, and sewage back into the soil is just as important. It makes no sense to spend tax money on solving pollution problems when we could