The first week of May is Compost Awareness Week. It’s a week to advocate for composting and promote awareness of the importance of compost for us, the animals and our environment. Every year, over half of our household rubbish is made up of food and garden waste. You’d be surprised to know just how much of this waste can be recycled to the earth by composting and all the good it brings to the planet!
Fast facts about composting:
· Approximately 50% of the rubbish we accumulate yearly is organic material that could be composted.
· Around 33% of this rubbish is from consumable products.
· Around 10% of this rubbish is garden waste.
· Organic material in landfills causes over 3% of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions annually through the production of methane gas – Methane gas has 25 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. This proves organic material should be discarded separately, and not to the detriment of the environment it comes from.
· Using compost on land reduces the need for water by an average of 30%
· The amount of compostable material in Australian rubbish bins has decreased by approximately 5% due to composting initiatives from households.
Composting helps:
· Improve soil quality by enriching soil with nutrients.
· Reduce plant diseases and pests, thus reducing or even eliminating the number of chemicals needed in the garden.
· Reduce the amount of garden waste going to landfill, therefore preventing greenhouse gas emissions and further pollutants.
· Retains moisture in soil. Less watering less often!
· Absorbs and filters runoff protecting streams from erosion and pollution.
· Reduces the need for chemical fertilisers and irrigation water in farming.
· Increases production in farming.
· Rehabilitates degraded soil in farming.
How to get involved:
New to composting? Head to compostweek.com.au and see what activities are lined up in your local area. Join a workshop and learn all about the types of composting you can start at home. Your council websites are also a great resource for composting information. Some councils also provide benchtop or garden compost bins.
If you don’t have the space for composting, have a look at Sharewaste. Sharewaste is an initiative that connects people with food scraps/compostable material to people with the room to take it. Together, individuals are connecting over a shared desire to help recycle our organic material and working collectively to improve our earth for the next generation.
Want to know what you can and can’t compost? Head to our post on the do’s and don’ts of composting for a comprehensive list.
Composting is one small change you and your family can make that adds up to a huge difference. Together we can help reduce carbon pollution by avoiding landfilling organic materials and recycling the earth’s natural resources.