Composting Defined
Vocabulary
Managing Wasted Food
Problems with Wasted Food
Composting Systems
100

Composting is a(n) __(1)__ process that converts __(2)__ materials into a nutrient-rich soil amendment.

What is aerobic (1) and organic materials (2)?

100

Food that was not used for its intended purpose

What is wasted food?

100

According to the EPA, this is the MOST PREFERRED option to solve issues related to food waste.

What is prevent the generation of wasted food?

100

True or false - Just 15% of the food that is wasted could feed 25 million people

What is true?

100

A system that continually adds material rather than doing it in batches

What is continuous flow?

200

The three most important requirements/factors for a good composting environment.

What are C:N ratio, moisture, and oxygen content?

200

The broad term for the primary ingredient that is being composted

What is feedstock?

200

According to the EPA, this is the LEAST PREFERRED method to solve issues related to food waste.

What is landfill/incineration/sending down the drain?

200

The single largest component of landfilled waste in the U.S.

What is wasted food?

200

A system that uses airflow to oxygenate a pile

What is aerated static pile?

300

The three characteristics of soil that are improved by compost. 

What are tilth, microbial communities, and carbon sequestration capacity?

300

The physical condition of soil

What is tilth?

300

The Good Samaritan Food Donation Act states that donors (are/are not) held liable for potential problems caused by the food they donate.

What is ARE NOT? Both donors and recipients of donated food are protected against liability, as long as there has been no intentional misconduct.

300

A potent greenhouse gas that is produced when wasted food is sent to municipal solid waste landfills

What is methane?

300

A system that consists of a pile of compost in a long row

What is windrow?

400

The highest temperatures within the compost pile occur during this stage.

What is primary?

400

A persistent class of chemicals found in many materials, including plastics

What is perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS, or forever chemicals)?

400

25 million hungry people could be fed with just this percentage of the food that is wasted.

What is 15%?

400

The percent of food produced in the U.S. that goes uneaten

What is 40 percent?

400

A category of systems that includes drums, shipping containers, barrels, or other enclosures

What is in vessel system?


500

The main characteristic responsible for the difference between microaggregation and macroaggregation.

What are the dominant organisms? (Macroaggregation occurs in fungally-dominant soils; microaggregation occurs in bacterially-dominant soils)

500

The process of food being buried and capped, where it biodegrades in the absence of air, with or without energy recovery

What is landfilling?

500

It is (legal/illegal) to donate food that has passed the 'best used by' date printed on the packaging.

what is LEGAL?
500

The two valuable products created by anaerobic digestion

What are biogas and digestate?

500

A system that technically is not composting; rather, worms consume organic material and break it down

What is vermiculture?

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