Living in the desert of Las Vegas and work I g in a casino that separates food waste from plastics and other wastes; I often wonder if the food waste in high amounts could give life to the soil or would it just be a biohazard to try to mix it into the earth to bring back nutrients.

Question

Was wondering if deep trenches where filled out in the desert with food bio-waste. Could we perform small scale terra-forming? Would it just end up creating a mess. Kinda wonder of we could even bank away useable biomass in the deserts even.

In: Other

Answer 1

Terra Preta puts organic waste in a trench and covers it for a year to compost. Then they light a fire over it to convert the compost to bio char. After it cools it is dug up and is said to be the best fertilizer in the world. Could you imagine the results if in addition to separating recycling from garbage, cities also separated organic waste for compost? Exporting it could create rich farmland in otherwise barren areas of the world. Unfortunately cost and corruption are barriers to that.