What Happens When We Don't Compost?

When we don't compost our food, it ends up in a landfill. A landfill is a big hole in the ground that is filled with trash. Landfills don't have room for air or water because all of the trash is crushed down to make room for more trash. Without air and water, decomposers can't survive. Without decomposers, the trash in landfill takes a very long time to decompose.

Landfills are ugly, stinky, and create their own kind of problems. For instance, when food is sent to the landfill, it is trapped under the pile and releases methane. Methane is a gas that goes into our atmosphere and traps heat from the sun. When too much methane is in the atmosphere, it traps too much heat from the sun and creates global warming which is a big problem.