Does the kitchen waste need to be sorted completely?
According to the research report released by the European Composting Association in 2022, 44% of the total annual production of biodegradable organic waste in European households comes from garden waste and 16% from kitchen waste, which means that garden waste from gardens is nearly three times that of kitchen waste.
Germany is recognized as one of the few countries in the world that has a good implementation of classified collection of kitchen waste, but only less than 1/5 of the garbage bins have been completed. The total annual output of biodegradable organic waste in Germany is about 21.1 million tons (data in 2012), including 14.5 million tons of garden waste and 6.6 million tons of kitchen waste. Classification, collection and recycling of biodegradable organic waste in Germany are mainly garden waste. The annual output of garden garbage in Germany is 177kg/person. The main disposal ways are: 15kg/person enters the classified garbage bins and then goes to composting or anaerobic fermentation, 12kg/person enters other garbage bins, and 5kg/person is illegally burned in the open air without effective collection. The annual output of kitchen waste in Germany is 81kg/person, and the main treatment ways are: 15kg/person enters the classified garbage bins and then goes to composting or anaerobic fermentation, 43kg/person enters other garbage bins, and 10kg/person is not effectively collected, such as entering sewers.
Paris is the largest city in continental Europe. In 2021, the main city of Paris collected 9,009 tons of kitchen waste (including kitchen waste from canteens, hotels and restaurants). According to reports, Shanghai currently collects nearly 10,000 tons of wet garbage by classification every day. Compared with Paris, this can be described as one day in Shanghai and one year in Paris. Beijing's household kitchen waste reached 4,296 tons/day, plus 2,120 tons/day of catering units.
The collection of kitchen waste can not avoid the health problems such as odor and leachate leakage during centralized transportation and storage. Vienna, Austria, puts hygiene in the first place, and does not collect meat, soup, dairy products and salty food as kitchen waste; The frequency of kitchen waste collection in many cities in Germany is once a week or once every two weeks. Dusseldorf and Nuremberg do not classify cooked parts as kitchen waste. These practices are worth our reference.
Kitchen waste should be divided, but it is suggested that the amount should be determined according to the demand, not how much is divided, and it should be pushed backwards from the links that can be used. It is not necessary to produce food every day, and kitchen waste can be selectively classified considering hygiene or transportation factors, not all kitchen waste.