Landfill leftovers leave a bad taste.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Brief article

Diners waste far less food when they are schooled on the harm their leftovers can inflict on the environment. However, if they know the food is going to be composted instead of dumped in a landfill, the educational benefit disappears. When composting enters the picture, educated diners waste just as much as those who have not learned about shrinking landfill space, dangerous greenhouse gas emissions, and water and soil pollution, according to a study at Ohio State University, Columbus.

This presents a tricky situation for policymakers figuring out how to manage food waste, because the top tactics are prevention (through education) and diversion (through composting), indicates lead researcher Danyi Qi, a graduate student in agricultural economics. 'When you do both, they cancel each other out--they work at cross purposes."

The discovery could help shape decisions by government, businesses, and others looking to chip away at the vast amount of food that lands in trash cans instead of on tables of those in need, says Qi and...