Kepta
Why Food in the Trash Isn't Harmless, and What to Do Instead
Food feels like the one thing in the kitchen trash that can't do any harm. It's natural, and it breaks down. The trouble is where it breaks down.
What happens in a landfill
Buried in a landfill, food rots without air, and that makes methane. In reports from October 2023, the EPA estimated that food waste is about 58 percent of the methane that escapes from municipal landfills, and that about 61 percent of the methane landfilled food produces is not captured (EPA).
All food is biodegradable. Where it ends up decides whether that helps: in a compost pile it becomes soil, and in a landfill it becomes methane.
The EPA's order of better and worse
The EPA ranks what can happen to wasted food on its Wasted Food Scale, from most preferred to least (EPA):
- Prevent wasted food, donate it, or upcycle it.
- Feed animals, leave crops unharvested, anaerobic digestion, compost, or apply it to land.
- Last: send it down the drain, to a landfill, or to an incinerator.
Two things stand out. The top of the scale isn't composting; it's not wasting the food in the first place. And the drain sits at the bottom with the landfill, because food sent down the drain "decays in sewers and produces methane," in the EPA's words (EPA).
What to do with scraps in your kitchen
- Fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds and filters, tea bags and eggshells can go in a home compost pile, mixed with "browns" like leaves and paper, or in your town's food scrap bin (EPA, NYC Sanitation).
- Meat, fish, bones, dairy, fats and oils stay out of a backyard pile; the EPA lists them as things not to compost at home. Many city food scrap programs do take meat, fish, bones, dairy and oily food, and New York City accepts meat, bones and dairy (EPA, NYC Sanitation).
- Grease and cooking oil never go down the drain. Let it cool in a can or jar, then throw it out (City of Sacramento, Palm Bay).
- Everything else goes in the trash if you have no compost option. That isn't a failure. It's the honest last step.
Your town may have a program, or a rule
City food scrap collection is growing but still small. BioCycle counted 14.9 million US households with access in 2023, up from 10.0 million in 2021 (BioCycle).
In some places, food in the trash is against the rules:
- Vermont has banned food scraps from household trash since July 1, 2020 (University of Vermont).
- New York City made curbside composting mandatory, with fines for building owners starting April 1, 2025 (NYC Sanitation, NY1).
- California's SB 1383, in effect since January 1, 2022, requires homes to put food scraps in the green organics bin, with enforcement left to local governments (City of Santa Monica).
To see what your town offers, search your city or county website for "food scraps" or "composting."
The top of the EPA's scale is prevention, and that's the part Kepta helps with. It keeps track of the food in your fridge, freezer and pantry, gives every item a freshness color, and puts a cook-by countdown on raw meat and an eat-by countdown on leftovers in the fridge, to help you use food before it goes bad, so less of it ends up in the bin.
