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Compost Awareness
news: May 2008

International Composting Awareness Week:

4th – 10th May 2008

In 2008 the Department of Environment and Climate Change is sponsoring International Composting Awareness Week, which is now celebrated in many countries around the world.

The aim of the week is to focus attention of governments, businesses, the community and the agricultural sector on the role that compost can play in sustaining the environment.

This year, the Australian focus is on the role that compost can play in climate change. Compost makes a difference by:

keeping methane-producing materials out of landfills
helping to make crops, parks and gardens more drought resistance
putting carbon back into soils, for long term storage.

In 2007, composting prevented the equivalent of 400,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. This is the same as taking 100,000 cars off the road permanently.

Find out what's happening in your neighbourhood during International Composting Awareness Week.

What can you do at home? – Australians now throw away 3.3 million tonnes of food every year – up to a quarter of the country's food supplies. Why? mainly because we purchase more than we need.

If everyone composted and mulched their household organics, we could slash total waste going to landfill by up to a third.

Food scraps, leaves, grass clippings, soiled newspaper and egg shells can all be turned into a rich, organic soil conditioner for your garden.

Easy ways that you can make a difference:

Buy only what you need.
Compost your food and garden organics.
Use a worm farm to turn your food scraps into fertiliser.
Mulch or chip prunings for reuse in your garden.
Make use of the organics service in your area
Specify compost in landscaping and rehabilitation works.

Living in an apartment? – Talk to your body corporate about setting up a shared compost bin – volunteer to manage the system or implement a roster.

Also consider setting up a worm farm to turn food scraps into liquid fertiliser – perfect for your pot plants. Worm farms are a great alternative for flats and units, and those with little or no garden area.

What happens to the organics that some councils collect in bins or in bundles? – This material goes to large centralised composting facilities where it is processed over several months into wonderful, friable soil conditioner and mulches.

This material is then used in all sorts of environmental applications, such as

reducing erosion in catchment management
improving soils and reducing water use in agriculture and horticulture,
rehabilitating mine sites, and
improving turf in council playing fields.

The Department of Environment and Climate Change has been undertaking a number of studies and trials with compost. If you can’t compost at home put out clean, sorted organic material for council collection or take sorted organic material to council collection depots. Contact your local council about facilities for recycling organics in your area.

Other Resources – The booklet Don't Rubbish Green Waste is a comprehensive guide on composting, worm farming and mulching at home.

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