In Depth: The benefits of composting

LOS ANGELES - Segment One:

Rachel Machi Wagoner, Director for CalRecycle talks to Hal about the importance of compost. Wagoner says that the 2016 legislation passed to try to eliminate food waste is groundbreaking. That legislation will make a huge impact in reducing methane emissions from landfills, and thereby reduce that huge impact on climate change. She says that it is a simple way to make an impact and much easier than to give up one’s car. She says most jurisdictions in California already have green bins and those will be used to discard food waste, so it won’t require much of a change.

Segment Two:

Hal is joined by agronomist Bob Shaffer with Soil Culture Consulting Services LLC. Shaffer tells us that compost provides a vital material, carbon, which is food for microbes in soil. Those benefits are essential to provide the energy to help plants survive, and thrive. The nutrition in those plants is then essential for humans. He says that we’re getting back to basics by growing the food in the earth and then returning the food to the earth.

Segment Three:

Michael Martinez founder and executive director of L.A. Compost joins Hal at the Griffith Park Compost hub and gives him a lesson on how compost is created. We also learn what happens to that compost after it is created, and it teaches people not to see food scraps as garbage, but as an essential part of the ecosystem.

Segment Four:

Hal promotes his podcast and we end with a discussion with Martinez about how to enforce the new food waste law.

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