Editorial: Pilot program could limit food waste going into landfills

You dutifully roll your recycling bin to the curb each week, and though you're doing a better job of cleaning out your jelly jars before tossing them and of sorting the recyclable plastic from the non-recyclable stuff, your garbage can is still larger and still stuffed with more junk.

Congratulations. You're the average suburban homeowner, trying to do your best for the environment.

But there is more we can all do. A lot of what ends up in landfills is apple cores, eggshells, mushy grapes, corn cobs, meat trimmings and all sorts of food waste we get rid of every day.

Why is that a problem?

It takes up a lot of room in landfills, so they fill up faster. And it rots and gives off greenhouse gases that are harmful to the environment.

There are those of us - notably backyard gardeners - who compost food waste to enrich the soil in our planting beds.

Is composting for everyone? No. Is garbage sometimes just garbage? Sure.

But on a larger scale, composting food waste is being experimented with to both reduce the volume in landfills and to make sure what ends up there is less harmful to the environment.

According to a story in last week's Daily Herald by our Mick Zawislak, the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County is embarking on an initiative that encourages restaurants to separate food waste from the rest so the county can divert some of the food waste from landfills.

Participation is limited now, but the hope is that the idea catches on with more restaurants and eventually, the restaurants inspire residents to work with waste haulers to do the same.

"What we're trying to do is set the tone that this is something that can be done," Pete Adrian, the agency's recycling coordinator, told Zawislak.

Just eight restaurants are participating now - four in Grayslake, four in Highland Park. But it has a few Libertyville restaurants - The Green Room, O'Toole's of Libertyville and Pizzeria Deville - working out how they might enter the program, too.

We encourage those three to find a way and set an example.

The waste agency is getting some help from an organization that's accustomed to large amounts of garbage - and limiting what percentage of it ends up in the dump.

Bright Beat, an environmental consultant based in Chicago, puts on arena concerts and other big events.

This program, spread widely enough, could make a difference. But only if people are willing to participate.