What if you could make food waste disappear by throwing it into a hole in the ground and walking away? Introducing: Solar Digesters.

They don’t produce compost, the rich, fluffy organic matter that turns back into soil. Instead, these digesters—typically little more than half-buried plastic cones within a small patch of dirt—harness microbial workhorses and the sun’s heat to transform organic matter into its elemental components, mostly carbon, water, CO2 and micronutrients, says Yichao Rui, a soil scientist in the Department of Agronomy at Purdue University. …
It’s a simple, easy, no-mess solution to keep organic waste out of trash and landfills: 58 percent of all methane emissions from municipal landfills are emitted by rotting food, second only to oil and gas production and livestock.

Source: This excerpt is from The Washington Post’s “Climate Coach” newsletter. Read the full column at: Climate Coach: How to make all your food waste disappear.

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