Throwing food in the garbage can not only makes your containers smell prior to pick up but you are also sending material to the landfill to create methane gas which is bad for the environment. When the food breaks down in the dump in an anerobic way the gas is created. Some landfills are capturing the gas to generate electricity but they are few and far between.
It would be better to compost your cooked food and food scraps and save the trips to the landfill.
