Celebrating Compost Awareness Week
May 7th – May 13th 2023
May 5th 2023 Blog by Angelina Brandt, UCRRA Director of Sustainability
Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency joins states, regions, and countries around the world promoting International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW). ICAW is an initiate by the Compost Research & Education Foundation. The Compost Research & Education Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports initiatives that enhance the stature and practices of the composting industry by supporting scientific research, increasing awareness, and educating practitioners and the public to advance environmentally and economically sustainable organics recycling.
ICAW is celebrated during the first full week of May and the goal of the educational campaign is to raise public awareness about the benefits of making and using compost. Started in Canada in 1995, ICAW has continued to grow as more people, businesses, municipalities, schools and organizations are recognizing the importance of composting and the long-term benefits from organics recycling. In May of 2018, Governor Cuomo approved a proclamation declaring the week of May 6-12 New York State Compost Awareness Week.
Each year a new theme is chosen to promote the week. This year’s theme is “For Healthier Soil, Healthier Food…Compost!” After the theme is chosen, ICAW features a poster contest each year in the Fall. This year’s winner of the ICAW 2023 Poster Contest is Jun Qi Tan, an illustrator and storyteller from Singapore. The 2023 theme best reflects the goal of focusing on how compost can have a role in making soil healthier, which helps grow healthier food and increased yields. How does compost help? By recycling organics into compost and using it on our home gardens and farmlands we create healthy soils.
ICAW is promoted across the country and worldwide by holding different types of group activities and special events. Recycling professionals, horticulturalists, school groups, volunteers, and other community leaders spend the week working to educate communities about composting by holding different programs, workshops, and trainings. From touring composting facilities to planting gardens and meeting with local experts, ICAW is a fun and educational program that reaches thousands of people. UCRRA is offering several special events and programs this month!
At Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency, we take this opportunity to recognize the important role of compost in improving soil health, stewarding local resources, sequestering carbon in the soil, and reducing organic waste sent to landfill.
Benefits of Using Compost
- Compost is high in organic matter which has the unique ability to bind nutrients in soil – reducing the need to use chemical fertilizers.
- Compost supplies beneficial soil microbes, which enhances soil biodiversity and helps to suppress plant disease pathogens and reduce the need to use harsh chemical fertilizers.
- Compost improve soil water holding capacity, increasing soil water infiltration and permeability of heavy soils, which reduces runoff and erosion.
- Compost has the unique ability to buffer or stabilize soil pH, which improves nutrient availability for a range of plant species.
- Compost improves soil structure, porosity, and density, allowing room for water and air to enter micro pore spaces in soil, creating a healthier plant root environment.
- Compost makes any soil easier to work with and cultivate.
In addition to these horticultural benefits, composting plays an essential role in meeting zero waste goals. When organic matter is sent to a landfill, it breaks down without oxygen, producing methane (a greenhouse gas that is over twenty times more effective at warming the atmosphere compared to carbon dioxide). By composting, we can effectively manage the organic materials that make up 30% of our waste stream. Composting is a climate smart solution, and you can be a climate leader too! Browse our resources below, and share this message!
