Grant: Imani, I heard you're going to the student council meeting to talk about composting in the cafeteria.

Imani: I am. I think we should put compost bins next to the trash cans at lunch.

Grant: Why? Isn't the food going to rot anyway?

Imani: It rots either way, but where it rots matters. Buried in a landfill, food breaks down without air and gives off methane, a gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. In a compost bin, it turns into soil.

Grant: Okay, but who's going to deal with the bins? The custodians already have enough work.

Imani: That's the strongest argument against it, and I'm not going to pretend it isn't. So in my plan, the environmental club empties the bins and carries them to the school garden every afternoon. No extra work for the custodians.

Grant: Does the garden even need that much compost?

Imani: Our garden teacher buys bags of soil every spring. And when our club weighed the food thrown away at lunch for one week, it came to more than two hundred pounds. We are paying for soil while we throw away what makes it.

Grant: Fine. You've convinced me. Mostly.