By Cole Manor Healthy Comet reporters | When people talk about taking care of the environment, many mention recycling plastic, but very few mention recycling their food waste.

Healthy Comet reporters were surprised to learn that the largest contributor to landfills is food waste, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Food waste can be food you don’t eat, such as leftovers in your refrigerator, onion peels, banana or orange peels, carrot peels, apple cores, eggshells, or lunch you don’t finish.

Food waste is harmful to the environment because it contributes to climate change by creating methane gas when it breaks down in landfills, according to Brown University’s Sustainability and Resiliency website. People can reduce food waste by composting. It’s a way to break food waste down into compost that can be used to help plants grow.

Composting takes food waste and turns it into a valuable fertilizer you can use in your garden to help plants grow.