Vocabulary
compost (V, N) - A natural way
to turn food, leaves, and other
things into material that helps soils.
Compost feeds soils, helps save
water, and helps plants grow better.
Verb: Compost vegetable scraps to
help plants grow. Noun: You should
put compost in your garden.
decompose (V) - Break down, or
decay. Tree leaves decompose into soil.
divert (V) - To send something
a different direction. To change
from original direction. Aluminum
cans are recyclable. They should
be diverted from landfills.
food recovery hierarchy (N) - A
system that ranks ideas for keeping
food out of landfills. Feeding animals is
one idea on the food recovery hierarchy.
greenhouse gases (N) - Gases that
can change the climate of the earth.
Greenhouse gases are sometimes
called “heat-trapping gases.”
landfill (N) - A garbage dump.
Sometimes, new cities or parks
are built on old landfills.
methane (N) - A colorless, odorless
gas used as a fuel. Methane is an
important greenhouse gas.
natural resources (N) - Resources
from nature. Water, land, and
air are natural resources.
nutrients (N) - Something that
helps a living thing to grow, live,
and stay strong. Vitamins from
food give us nutrients to grow.
produce (V, N): - Verb: to make or
manufacture from raw materials. Food
is produced at the farm or ranch. Noun:
Fresh fruits and vegetables. You can
buy good Colorado produce at the store.
recover (V) - To use a waste product
again, reuse, or regain. When
you compost banana peels, you
recover the nutrients to feed soils.
reduce (verb) - To make smaller,
make something less complex, or
use less. If you reduce food you throw
away, you can save money at home.
soil amendment (N) - Any material
you add to soil to improve its
chemical and physical properties.
Amendments are different depending
upon what the soil needs to grow a
healthy plant. Quality compost is an
excellent soil amendment for poor soil.
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (N) - A part of the U.S.
government that keeps people and
the environment safe. The EPA works to
keep water, air, and land clean and safe.
vermicomposter (N) - A different
type of composting using a special
kind of worm to turn food scraps,
paper, and leaves into plant food.
Some students recycle food scraps with
a vermicomposter in their classroom!
2 - Colorado Agriculture in the Classroom
What's a
Landfill?
Trash is everywhere. Piling up in
landfills, scattered in the seas and
oceans, and even floating in space.
The final resting spot for nearly half
of the trash we produce in the United
States is the landfill. There are about
2,000 landfills around the country.
When you take out your trash, do
you ever wonder where it goes?
More than half (about 57 percent)
of our trash goes to landfills. About
a third (27 percent) of trash can be
recycled or composted. Sixteen
percent of trash is burned using big
incinerators to combust the material.
Garbage has a direct impact on the
environment. As trash decomposes it
produces harmful greenhouse gases.
The United States Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) estimates
that landfills are the third leading
cause of methane emissions in the
U.S. alone. Methane is a greenhouse
gas that destroys the ozone layer. By
simply sitting in landfills, garbage
can be causing climate change.
Around the world, people throw
away roughly four million tons of
trash every day. That’s enough to fill
44 Olympic-size swimming pools.