CINCINNATI — An Ohio environmental group is trying to get more families to stop wasting food and turn it back into dirt.

Tony Staubach never knew he’d have an office with a dumpster view, but he said he knew he wanted to do this kind of work. It's something that he said that is saving the planet.

“My mom and dad had a compost in the backyard as a child, you know, they did mostly yard and garden waste. That was the 90s. That’s what you do,” said Staubach.

Now it’s a part of his job. Staubach is a food waste diversion specialist for Hamilton County Resource, a division of the county’s Environmental Services. 

The problem is, many times, instead of a compost bin, food scraps end up in a landfill and they’ve found out just how much.   

The most recent study from Hamilton County’s Environmental Services shows most household waste in the county is food and paper. That's something Staubach said can turn dangerous in a landfill.

“It decomposes without oxygen, without that oxygen, without that oxygen, you get that environment that produces methane, methane is that toxic greenhouse gas that is 26 times more potent than carbon dioxide,” said Staubach.

He said food and recyclable paper can be composted and turned back into soil in your own backyard.

Staubach has been trying to show residents and companies how to compost, too.

“If you let food sit in a pile, it will decay, but it will smell and it might attract rodents, so you wanna add dry carbon material to that so that would be things like dried leaves, unwaxed paper, so if you some junk mail sitting around.”

It's an effort they’re hoping will keep waste out of the landfill, one compost at a time.

If you want to start a backyard compost, there may be different rules and regulations in your city. You can check with your local environmental agency for more information or click here for information about composting rules in the Hamilton County area.