Have you ever wished you had superpowers? Well maybe in fact you do. And you don’t even have to come bearing a cape or mask, or the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

So how can you engage your superpowers?  Do you realize the average household produces on average 650 lbs. of organic trash a year? What’s more, most of that ends up in the landfill.  The hard fact is upwards of 40% of our landfills are packed full of organic matter.

Like lots of folks, maybe you’re thinking that’s ok, that it’ll break down since it’s out of sight in a nice big hole in the ground. But there’s a real problem with this theory because this type of decomposition is what’s known as an anaerobic process, which basically means it takes place without the presence of oxygen.  As a result, as all that organic matter breaks down, it releases methane gas into the atmosphere. Methane is nothing to mess with as it is very damaging—in fact, it is 72% more powerful than CO2.

So I don’t come bearing a red cape, but I do come bearing a red bucket! A red bucket you say?  Yes, but this is no ordinary red bucket.  The bucket I’m talking about provides a way to be part of the solution—that being to close the gap by working to become a zero-waste household.

At Food Loops, we offer a program where your food waste is not only diverted from the landfill, it becomes sustainable compost.  Even if you’ve never composted before, our residential bucket program processes your food waste into compost which can be one of the most effective tools in the zero-waste arsenal.

Our residential bucket program is a monthly $10 subscription service that helps chase away all the excuses that may hold you back from this simple, but very effective step in becoming more sustainable in your day-to-day life.  Excuses like no time, or no space, or I don’t waste that much food.  If you doubt how much food you actually do waste, I challenge you to set a bowl under your kitchen sink and every time you have any food waste as you prepare a meal and clean up afterward—be that vegetable peels, coffee grounds, eggshells, tea bags, paper towels, napkins, chicken bones—yes! You can place your poultry and beef bones and fat in our red buckets because unlike backyard composting, we grind all food waste into nutrient-rich compost while at the same time diverting that same food waste from ending up in our landfill.

Living a zero-waste lifestyle is not about perfection, but about making better choices. If a whole bunch of us are making small changes in our lives, it will all add up to make a substantial impact.  At Food Loops we’re continually learning new ways to live more sustainably, and we invite you to join us.  We even make it easy—to learn how you can make a difference by joining our residential bucket swap, visit us at Foodloops.net  

We may not possess superpowers to leap buildings, but we can slow the growth of our landfills one bucket at a time.