Intro to Home Composting

Spring Seminar: Intro to Home Composting

Home composting is a great way to manage food scraps like fruit and vegetable peels, coffee grounds, stale bread, eggshells, and other scraps or spoiled foods. When these materials are mixed together along with leaves, grass clippings, and other yard wastes, the natural process of composting begins!

This workshop is designed for new/beginner composters. The class will introduce the benefits of organics recycling, share some of the science behind how composting works, and provide an overview of what materials should and should not be composted and how to mix  materials together. Our educators will compare various compost bin options and explain the pros and cons of each. Beginner composters should know some tips and tricks to avoid pests and odors, as these can easily be avoided! At the end of the seminar, participants will learn about why using compost is beneficial for soil health, and will learn how to use the compost that they will create right in their own backyard.

This class will be offered in person at the Town of Plattekill Library, with guest speakers Angelina Brandt, Director of Sustainability and Tanesia White, Recycling Educator at the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency.

We’re Celebrating Compost Awareness Week!

About ICAW: International Compost Awareness Week  is the largest and most comprehensive education initiative of the compost industry. It’s celebrated nationwide, internationally, and officially across New York Stare each year during the first full week of May. The goal of ICAW is for communities everywhere to raise public awareness about the many benefits of composting and how to make and use compost to regenerate soils. Visit the New York Compost Awareness Week page for more information about local programs, events, and initiatives.

2022 Theme: Recipe for Regeneration: Compost! Each year, a new theme for ICAW is chosen. The 2022 theme highlights the overall regenerative agriculture movement

and how compost and organics recycling fit into that process. Regenerative agriculture is a system that focuses on improving soil health using agricultural practices with the idea that healthier soil will lead to healthier, more nutrient-rich crops and, ultimately, less carbon in the atmosphere through increased carbon sequestration.  Compost, when added to farmland, gardens, yards, and o

ther landscapes creates healthier soils and crops by providing food for soil microbes in the ground. These microbes enrich soil quali

This year’s winner of the ICAW 2022 Poster Contest is Angelo Esquivel from Sacramento, CA. ty while also sequestering carbon in the soil through photosynthesis, a tool for combating climate change. Just as a chef pulls together the best ingredients to create the perfect recipe, the 2022 theme focuses on the crucial role recycling our food scraps  plays by creating compost, which when added to soil results in a recipe that makes our food more nutritious, the air we breathe cleaner and our climate healthier overall.