Composting. Seems so 1960s, doesn’t it? While it’s still a fantastic source of organic material fertilizer for the low-carbon-impact home garden, it also holds fair potential as a source of biomass energy. And thanks to a new state law in Minnesota, more and more citizens may be exploring that option.

The law allows organic waste—apparently anything from orange peels to grass clippings to “animal waste”—to be picked up at the curb by recycling companies. From there, recyclers look to bacteria to digest the waste into not only fertilizers and soil conditioners, but also methane, better known as natural gas.

Aside from small concerns about sanitation—probably the reason this law needed to be passed in the first place—I really like this measure. It provides the opportunity for pretty much everyone to contribute to generating a useful fuel—many transit agencies nationwide use methane powered CNG buses—and allowing pick-up in front of homes in residential neighborhoods may help the practice spread by word of mouth.

It might additionally be in the public interest to pay people based on the biomass they contribute, to give them extra incentive to separate organic matter from the rest of the trash.