Environment

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Environmental and ecological discussion, particularly of things like weather and other natural phenomena (especially if they're not breaking news).

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Why compost and residual waste are not together? (lemmy.today)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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In Italy (and in most countries I've visited), waste sorting typically involves two distinct categories for compost and residual waste.

Question: Why is compost disposed of in a separate collection rather than with residual waste? Are there any environmental differences if it decomposes together with dry waste versus separately? Is it a matter of disposal efficiency, or is it simply another administrative complexity?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

If you think very, very hard about it, the name "compost" might give you a hint as to why IT IS handled separately...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Rules for the "compost waste" doesn't apply for making the compost that you use as a fertilizer. Maybe that's why we call it "wet". It's basically anything that is biodegradable. But not everything that is biodegradable is ok for fertilizing...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

"compost waste" will usually be used as fertilizer. It depends on the region, but they'll often extract bio gas first and the residue will be further processed by machines and bacteria into compost or fertilizer.

Other garbage will usually be burned and then buried. Maybe partially recycled. But completely different processes.