Food waste accounts for 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions. But it turns out composting — the mystical art of turning your food scraps into nutritious organic material that can be used to grow even more food — can help to reduce those emissions. We talk to Domingo Morales of Compost Power about how he found composting, how he’s trying to make it cool, and why he’s building compost sites at public housing developments all over New York City.

This episode contains a description of suicide, so please take care while listening. And if you or someone you love is having thoughts of suicide, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1- 800-273-TALK.

Guest: Domingo Morales 

Calls to Action

• If you have food scraps…compost them!
• Domingo recommends finding your local food scrap drop off to start – just separate your waste, freeze it so it doesn’t smell, and bring it to a drop off bin
• If you want to learn how to compost at home, check out: the Compost Power Instagram, the EPA, and SodGod for your classic aerobic compost pile, and Loop Closing to learn about worm bins 
• And if you’re already composting, share it with the people around you

Listen to Domingo’s compost rap!

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This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Anna Ladd. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, Daniel Ackerman, and Hannah Chinn. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was Claudia Geib.