Lately, I've found myself googling flights at 3 am. I suppose that's better than scrolling social media when I can't sleep but probably not by much.
When can we go back to England? My child asks at least once a week. She misses the castle playground by the apartment we rented last summer, the walks to the beach to get ice cream, and the sheep in the field down the street. And while I don't need a reason to fantasize about a trip, the current American news cycle makes an escape especially appealing.
I'm trying to fly less, though, to limit long-haul flights to at least only every other year. To shift how I think about traveling and to help my child become someone who balances the desire to travel with its impacts. Still, while it's easy to blame flying for global warming, and I am committed to attempting to reduce the amount we fly, there's something we do every day that has a greater impact on our household carbon emissions: throw away edible food.
Food waste is responsible for about 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, with households likely responsible for the biggest share of food waste.
Reducing food waste is one of the most significant ways to reduce your household carbon footprint, and it can also be a jumping-off point for how kids (and all of us) think about other types of waste.
It starts with planning ahead, scanning your kitchen for what you have, only buying what you need and storing food properly. Even after all that, though, it's virtually impossible to have zero food waste, especially when you live with an increasingly picky 4-year-old. That's where composting comes in.
The beauty of composting is that it can be as simple or complicated as your child is ready for. If your kids are young and just learning about cleaning up, try integrating it into your cooking and after-meal clean-up routines. For instance, have your children sort the remains of their breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner into the trash, recycling, and compost. Pick just one meal a day to start. Once your child has mastered the basics of trash, compost, and recycling piles, you can begin introducing how composting works.
As kids get older have them experiment. Explain how just like we need to chew our food, compost needs small pieces to work. Then have them cut up food scraps with a designated pair of compost scissors Talk about organic versus non-organic material and make a game out of it. Use a few containers and let them see which things can decompose by putting organic matter in various sizes in one container and non-organic materials in the other. Let them observe the process of it decomposing.
The older they get the more you can explain how when we put organic waste in the trash, it doesn't break down as it would in a compost pile because it is buried under other debris, rotting and emitting the greenhouse gas methane. In contrast, when we compost organic material like food scraps and yard waste, it breaks down with some help from microorganisms turning into something we can use to help plants grow.
There are an overwhelming number of compost bins and systems on the market. The best one is the one that's going to work for you and your household. If you don't have a yard to compost in it, more and more municipalities are starting curbside food scrap collection, and intelligent systems like the newly released Mill are slowly (and unfortunately expensively) providing other options. Whichever system you decide on, consider both the size and location. You want your compost bin to be accessible and big enough to hold everything you need; otherwise, throwing things in the rubbish bin will be tempting.
While what exactly you can compost will vary, especially based on the system and where the compost is ultimately going, you can generally compost anything that is an organic material (even some clothes) and won't attract pests.
Composting can fuel kids' curiosity or, at the very least, become an ingrained habit that will help them live more sustainably. And perhaps balance some emissions from other sources, like traveling.
~ Bridget
P.S. Here are a few things that I've been up to:
Published: How scientists, farmers and conservationists are using digital mapping tools to restore oyster populations and the environmental benefits their habitats provide for Modern Farmer.
Working: A story on sneakers for the Today Show and curbside food waste collection for The Day.
Reading: The Dressmakers of Prospect Heights by Kitty Zeldis; I love a good historical novel. Should I have kids? New York Times reporters recently answered questions about climate change. But perhaps the question we should be asking, according to Britt Wray who I spoke with last year for a story on the climate change experts choosing to have kids, is how we think about family.