One of India’s trash mountains is on fire again and residents are choking on its toxic fumes

🗑️ Simple solutions exist. This article makes is sound like dump fires are an occasional thing. These fires happen ALL THE TIME in hot weather environements.

🌲 Why? Because food and other organic waste, when it goes anaerobic (without oxygen), produces not just methane, but also alcohol. Under the right conditions, especially in naturally hot climates, these piles will ignite spontaneously. Then the entire rubbish heap, full of all sorts of disasterous materials like tires, batteries, etc. goes up in smoke leaving toxic residues everywhere - in air, soil, water.

🍔 How can this be prevented? Separate organic wastes before they end up in landfills! This makes a lot of sense for all governments, but, has yet to be adopted everywhere. Even better is to PROPERLY compost the organic (as in carbon based) wastes (as opposed to simply drying them out and giving them aways as 'compost' which they aren't since there is no life in them whatsoever). Then municipalities can forgo synthetic fertilizers and create a healthier, more biodiverse landscape. Even turning them into biochar would allow the recapture of biofuels and create a product which could then be used by the municipalities. This solves not only a waste problem, but a pollution problem too and then as a happy by-product, gives exothermic heat which can be exploited, AND can help as a soil amendment.

🌎 We really must start to think differently! The solutions to our problems exist - and that should give us hope!

📝 Erin Wiedmer's post

dumpster #foodsharing #foodwaste #foodshare #sustainability