Food waste needlessly takes up a lot of space in New England’s landfills, and as Biogas Energy Partners has predicted, legislation in many states across the nation is probably on the way as a result of growing awareness.

The problem is twofold. First, a lot of perfectly good food that could feed hungry people around the world, and certainly in our own country, could be put to much better use than taking up space in our landfills. Second, the food scraps that unavoidably do belong in the waste stream should produce energy or perform some other useful function, if possible. That’s beginning to happen, but not yet on a large scale.

The Wall Street Journal recently published a story about food waste being composted and used as fertilizer for rooftop gardens in New York City. What a great idea! And college students in Florida and in Nebraska are also using creativity to reduce the amount of food our nation throws away.

We generate energy with food waste, and then use what little material is left over to fertilize the field at Stonyvale Farm. But no single idea is the best; all creative ideas can help deal with this huge problem. Wouldn’t it be great if we could largely eradicate this problem in the next twenty years? Creative solutions are the answer.

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