Normally, when food waste goes to landfill, it gets broken down by microbes. Starved of oxygen, these microbes emit methane. A greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than CO2. Composting food waste can solve this problem and leads to extra environmental benefits, too. Microbes in compost can breathe all the oxygen they want. So instead of producing methane, these microbes recycle food waste into valuable organic matter.