By  Pete Pearson, Contributing Writer/NewWest.Net

Composting. The word conjures memories of my childhood in McCall and the habits of a neighborhood family who ate strange all-natural peanut butter and raised rabbits. I was a Jif kid.  (My theory that you can determine much about a person by knowing what kind of peanut butter they ate as a child we’ll discuss some other time.)

Boise now has a city-wide recycling program which has eased the burden on our throwaway society by giving us two simple options - put your trash in the grey bin, recyclables in the blue.  Idaho is still behind the progress curve, but many kudos to city leadership for making this happen.

Back in 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that 23 percent of U.S. municipal solid waste is composed of yard clippings and food waste.  With every paradigm shift (the industrial revolution, computers, and now the green movement) opportunities arise in unlikely places.  Many businesses are hiring private companies to haul compostable material away from offices where it is processed and sold for other uses.  More progressive companies are devising ways to compost materials onsite, reaping the benefits and cost savings of a closed loop system. 

In his book “Cradle to Cradle” William McDonough argues that we must rethink the entire concept of “waste.” His contention is that waste = food, meaning our waste should provide food (input) to either the natural biological cycle or the industrial cycle. The problem is that many products we throw away cannot be easily recycled in either.

During a lecture last spring in Boise, McDonough was asked what individuals can do to change the world. McDonough’s answer: “everyone should compost.”

Not only does composting ease the burden on our over-burdened landfills, but it awakens a new consciousness crucial to our culture. As I hiked in the Sawtooth National Forest last weekend, I came across litter on the trail.  At first, I was upset that someone would litter in such a pristine place.

But soon after, my disappointment shifted from the “litterer” to the litter itself. Why do we need a candy wrapper that lasts 500 hundred years? Business school teaches us we need plastic candy wrappers because they create a higher profit margin, which in turn increases shareholder wealth. Increase the cost of the packaging, and the business will lose profit margin.  The problem created is a lack of financial incentives for the business to develop an environmentally friendly package. In many cases I’m a strong advocate against mandates and regulation but sometimes they can be an effective mechanism for change when time is a critical factor and industries have little incentive to innovate. 

Our country needs a National Packaging Standard that mandates businesses to use biodegradable packaging within five years on both domestic and imported goods.  Since ALL businesses would absorb the cost increase, there is no competitive disadvantage to changing.  Over time, businesses might save money by being forced to re-think their packaging with financial incentives to use less.  Imagine hiking in the woods and being able to throw that candy wrapper on the trail knowing in 10 days it’s gone; eaten by the ants, grubs, and flies. Waste = food. 

Our future prosperity as a society will likely depend on our ability to come into balance with the Earth’s natural cycles. We should buy “things” that can be naturally returned to the Earth’s biosphere whenever possible.  As you make the change, you might find a funny addiction to seeing how quickly you can fill the compost bin in the backyard. 

Restaurants in Boise could lead the way, if they created partnerships to buy biodegradable to-go products in bulk (i.e. straws, forks, plates, to-go containers) so there would be no competitive disadvantage to changing. Over time, the price of the products would go down as economies of scale kicked in. Let’s rally Boise businesses to get rid of the Styrofoam coffee cup and the plastic fork at lunch!  No more bottled water! Be that annoying person who keeps asking for real utensils and cups at restaurants even if you know they don’t have them. Most importantly, let’s teach our children about the Earth’s natural cycles by composting.

Ask yourself this: when you throw something away, where is “away”?

Pete Pearson lives in Boise, Idaho and has an MBA in sustainable business from Green Mountain College
in Vermont.