擒数网 （随信APP) | 美国只有5%的食品废物被堆肥处理，哪些州正在努力解决这个问题？

文章目录[隐藏]

• Machinery Partner
• 至2019年，少数州真正致力于堆肥计划
  • Machinery Partner
• Few states commit to composting in earnest as of 2019

Machinery Partner使用环保署收集的数据绘制了每个州的人均堆肥量。

Paxtyn Merten

根据环保署最新估计数据，2019年美国人堆肥约330万吨食品废物。

这可能看起来很多，但考虑到住宅区、商业餐饮和食品零售业在同一年产生了6620万吨食品浪费。这意味着国家约5%的食品废物被堆肥，其余的都被送进填埋场，那里食品是最常见的材料。在填埋场，食品废物分解速度比堆肥慢得多。缺氧，还会产生甲烷，这是一种有害的温室气体。

尽管从可持续性的角度来看这些统计数据令人沮丧，但它们确实展示了新的堆肥公司和系统出现的机会。

为了找出哪些地方渴望堆肥以及堆肥基础设施可能不足，Machinery Partner使用环保署收集的数据绘制了每个州的人均堆肥量。环保署的数据于2023年发布，但代表2019年，因此数据早于一些州的堆肥计划和倡议。

堆肥是一种自然的回收过程，昆虫、细菌和真菌分解园艺废料和食物残渣，将它们的营养归还到土壤中，为新的植物生长提供养分。堆肥减少温室气体排放，补充土壤中的有机物质，创造就业机会，降低传统垃圾和填埋管理的成本。

实践中，堆肥可以采取许多不同的形式，从在后院掩埋食物残渣到市政和商业服务收集堆肥和废弃物箱，然后将它们送到类似于其他美国垃圾收集系统的处理设施。

BioCycle的一项研究在美国发现了200多个全尺度的堆肥设施，其中绝大多数是私人拥有或运营的。有机物回收出版物还发现，在2021年和2023年之间，居民有权接受住宅食品废物回收计划的家庭数量增加了49％，尽管这些服务仅覆盖了12％的家庭。后院堆肥和小型社区站点的存在要难以量化得多。

一月，农业部宣布向23个州的堆肥和食品废物分流计划投资约1150万美元，通过2021年的美国拯救计划法案。在这一努力的延续中，农业部正在选择两年的堆肥和食品废物减少试点项目的支持，主要来自地方政府和部落组织，这些项目将于2025年启动。自2020年以来，这些资金已经超过1200万美元的类似投资。

Machinery Partner

至2019年，少数州真正致力于堆肥计划

环保署数据显示，维吉尼亚州、缅因州和俄亥俄州等州已经在2019年开始了相对健全的堆肥计划。维吉尼亚州在2020年全面推行强制堆肥，禁止将食物残渣送进填埋场。在过去十多年里，该州制定了相应禁令，出现了众多的堆肥设施和私人食品废物收集服务，以满足需求。到2020年中期，这个小州已经有100多个转运站提供食品残渣收集服务，规定每个垃圾收集设施都必须处理食品残渣。

俄亥俄州，已经是一个堆肥计划较为完善的州，正在进一步扩大堆肥计划。克利夫兰市是今年农业部投资项目的受益者之一，获得资金用于扩大堆肥服务的接入，并为粮食券受益者补贴这些服务。

最近的BioCycle研究发现，大约50%的全尺度食品废物堆肥设施位于七个州：加利福尼亚州、纽约州、科罗拉多州、宾夕法尼亚州、华盛顿州、得克萨斯州和北卡罗来纳州。住宅收集服务在西部和东北部最为普遍，尽管一些州在其他地区也提供该服务。加利福尼亚州、伊利诺伊州、纽约州和明尼苏达州的计划容量最高。这种有限的覆盖面意味着有大量的可能会进行堆肥的人口，以及许多可以为新的私人和市政服务提供堆肥服务的机会。

一些排名较低的州近年来获得了联邦资金。弗吉尼亚州在2019年每千名居民堆肥仅为200磅，自2020年以来已经获得了超过47.5万美元用于四个不同的堆肥和食品废物减少项目，据美国农业部称。这些项目旨在通过路边收集和社区临时场地扩大堆肥，同时为弱势群体提供补贴，还在弗吉尼亚动物园、诺福克和K-12学校等重要场所建立堆肥计划。

许多州缺乏环保署堆肥报告的数据。在一些部门和地区，历史上根本没有收集这些数据，而在其他地方，数据更新数量稀少。新墨西哥州就是其中之一，该州网站上仅发布了有关感到抛弃填埋场的州的回收和转移数据，截至2015年，并且没有将堆肥单独列出。根据最新数据，与全国32%的回收率相比，新墨西哥州的回收率仅为16%。该州的一个回收联盟宣传扩大州内的回收和堆肥有望增加成千上万个本地就业岗位。

新墨西哥州至少有一个项目被纳入了美国农业部最近的堆肥资金分配中。该项目将支持在那些无法接受私人堆肥服务的阿尔布开克的部分地区建立社区堆肥合作社和农场堆肥枢纽。

通过持续的公共投资、节省机会和对环境影响的认识，全美各州正在扩展堆肥基础设施。2015年，环保署和农业部计划到2030年将粮食损失和废物减少一半，将每人每年328磅的废物减少到164磅。截至2019年，该国从最初基线增加了6％，这意味着还有更多工作要做。

考虑到这一点，个人在他们的社区学习和倡导堆肥的机会越来越多，有意为未来或已有的企业填补全美国日益增长的堆肥服务需求。

故事编辑 by Mary Reardon。由Kelly Glass和Elisa Huang进行额外编辑。由Tim Bruns进行复制编辑。

这个故事最初出现在Machinery Partner上，并与Stacker Studio合作制作和分发。

Machinery Partner mapped the quantity of compost per capita in each state using data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency.
- Jerome.Romme // Shutterstock

Paxtyn Merten

Americans composted about 3.3 million tons of food waste in 2019, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s most recent estimates.

That may seem like a lot, but consider that between residential areas, commercial food service, and food retail, Americans generated 66.2 million tons of wasted food in the same year. That means about 5% of the nation’s food waste is composted, with the rest ending up in landfills, where food is the most commonly found material. In landfills, food waste decomposes much slower than when composted. Lacking oxygen, it also produces methane, a harmful greenhouse gas.

While these statistics are grim from a sustainability standpoint, they do convey an opportunity for new composting companies and systems to arise.

To find where there is an appetite for composting and where composting infrastructure may be lacking, Machinery Partner mapped the quantity of compost per capita in each state using data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency. The data was released in 2023 but represents 2019, so it precedes new programs and initiatives for composting programs in some states.

Composting is a natural recycling process in which insects, bacteria, and fungi break down yard waste and food scraps, returning their nutrients to the soil and providing for new plant life. Composting reduces greenhouse gas emissions, replenishes organic materials in soil, creates jobs, and reduces costs for traditional garbage and landfill management.

In practice, composting can take many different forms, from burying food scraps in the backyard to municipal and commercial services that pick up compost and yard waste bins and take them to processing facilities similar to other U.S. trash collection systems.

A BioCycle study identified over 200 full-scale composting facilities in the U.S., of which the vast majority were privately owned or operated. The organics recycling publication also found that there was a 49% increase in the number of households with access to residential food waste collection programs between 2021 and 2023, though these services reach just 12% of homes. The presence of backyard composting and small community sites is much harder to quantify.

In January, the Department of Agriculture announced a $11.5 million investment into composting and food waste diversion programs across 23 states through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. In a continuation of this effort, the USDA is in the process of selecting two-year pilot projects for composting and food waste reduction to support, largely from local and tribal governments and organizations, which would launch in 2025. These funds build on over $12 million in similar investments since 2020.

Machinery Partner

Few states commit to composting in earnest as of 2019

States like Vermont, Maine, and Ohio already had relatively robust composting programs as of 2019, the EPA data shows. Vermont fully mandated composting starting in 2020, banning food scraps from landfills. As the state built up to that ban over the past decade-plus, composting facilities and private food waste collection services popped up across the state to fill the need. By mid-2020, the small state had over 100 transfer stations offering food scrap collection, with a mandate that every trash collection facility also process food scraps.

Ohio, already a high-ranking state, is the site of further compost program expansions. The city of Cleveland was among the recipients of this year’s agriculture department investments, receiving funding for a program to increase access to composting services and to subsidize those services for SNAP recipients.

The more recent BioCycle study found that about 50% of U.S. full-scale food waste composting facilities were located in seven states: California, New York, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Washington, Texas, and North Carolina. Residential collection services were most prevalent in the West and Northeast, though some were available in states interspersed throughout other regions. The highest volume of programs was found in California, Illinois, New York, and Minnesota. This limited coverage implies a vast population of would-be composters and many opportunities for new private and municipal services.

Some low-ranked states were recipients of federal dollars in recent years. Virginia, which reported composting just 200 pounds per 1,000 residents in 2019, has received over $475,000 since 2020 toward four different composting and food waste reduction projects, according to the USDA. These projects aim to expand compost through curbside pickup and community drop-off sites. They also establish composting programs at major sites like the Virginia Zoo, Norfolk, and in K-12 schools.

Many states lacked data for the EPA composting report. In some sectors and regions, this data simply hasn’t been collected historically, while in others, data updates are few and far between. This includes New Mexico, which has only released recycling and diversion data through 2015 on a Diverting from Landfills state website and which does not separate out composting. According to its most recent data, New Mexico has a 16% recycling rate, compared to the 32% rate nationwide. A recycling coalition in the state touts that expanding recycling and composting within the state has the potential to add thousands of local jobs.

At least one project in New Mexico was included in the USDA’s most recent compost funding distributions. It will support community compost co-ops and farm compost hubs in parts of Albuquerque that don’t have access to private composting services.

With access to continued public investments, savings opportunities, and awareness of the environmental impact, states across the country are expanding composting infrastructure. In 2015, the EPA and USDA planned to cut food loss and waste in half by 2030—reducing waste from 328 pounds per person per year to 164 pounds. By 2019, the country had achieved a 6% increase from the original baseline, meaning there’s substantially more work to come.

Considering this, there are evermore opportunities for individuals to learn about and advocate for composting in their communities and for prospective or existing businesses to fill the growing demand for composting services across the country.

Story editing by Mary Reardon. Additional editing by Kelly Glass and Elisa Huang. Copy editing by Tim Bruns.

This story originally appeared on Machinery Partner and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.