16: The Weight of Waste
USA
A Climate Pollinator story by Sierra Ross Richer
For six months last year, Donna Detweiler’s Sunday routine included sorting and weighing her church’s waste. She measured how much her congregation, Albuquerque Mennonite Church, in New Mexico, USA, was sending to the compost pile, the recycling center and the landfill, in hopes of helping to reduce the amount this year.
“Every Sunday (from July to December) we would weigh the three different categories,” Donna said. “Now we have a baseline and what I would love to do is do some publicity… and see if we might be able to get under that benchmark.”
Donna is a member of the Watershed Way group at her church. In addition to carrying out the waste stream audit, Donna initiated and runs a composting project at the church.
Producing less waste and disposing of waste products properly is important for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The book Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming published in 2017 ranks reducing food waste as the third most effective solution for lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Composting and recycling household products come in at #60 and #55.
Managing the waste stream at Albuquerque Mennonite church isn’t always straight forward.
For one, the church shares its building with two other congregations as well as a daycare center. Donna said it’s hard to make sure that the different users of the facility adhere to the sorting system, putting recyclable and compostable items in the correct places.
Even when people do put items like compostable paper plates in the compost, management of the pile can be an issue. Because of the dry environment, the compost pile has to be watered regularly and paper plates have to be separated and torn into smaller pieces.
The compost produced by the church is used to fertilize the plants on the church’s property. “We like the idea of not sending (our organic waste) to the landfill to produce more methane,” Donna said.
In the next few months, Donna hopes to create more consciousness in her congregation around the issue of waste and how to take care of it.
To help with that process, a potter in the congregation made a set of ceramic plates and mugs for use at potlucks and other events. Donna hopes that getting in the habit of using those instead of disposable plates will help the church waste less.
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