Happy Compost Week!

Posted on April 29, 2016

Did you know that International Compost week this year is from May 1-7? It’s a great way to spread the word about compost while we’re setting up for spring. We were on CTV recently chatting all about compost, and here are 6 more reasons to love feeding your soil, thanks in part to the Compost Council of Canada:

1. Compost sends less to the landfill. Organics represent over 1/3 of the materials being sent to landfills. Whether through backyard or large-scale composting or anaerobic digestion, those banana peels, apple cores and other organic materials can be recycled.

2. Reduced greenhouse gases. According to Environment Canada, landfill sites account for about 38% of Canada's total methane emissions. It's the organics that are buried in the landfill that are a key contributor to this production of greenhouse gases.

3. Save money and reduce the need for pesticides. Through backyard composting, you can turn your leftover organics into a valuable soil amendment for free. Your healthy and productive soil can also help suppress plant diseases.

4. Reduce the need to water. By improving the soil structure through the addition of compost, water is retained and available for plants.

5. Make a positive environmental difference. With compost, you can take resources otherwise regarded as waste - organic residuals - and turn them into something of value while at the same time realizing landfill and greenhouse gas reductions, improved soil productivity and water quality.

6. There’s lots of ways to do it. There are so many ways to compost! Outdoor composting consists of a bin outside that you take your food scraps to and maintain throughout the year. You can learn more from our online backyard composting guide, and we’ll be selling them at our Rain Barrel and Composter sales.

There’s also vermicomposting which uses worms. Check out our online vermicomposting guide, and when you’re ready for your red wrigglers, order your worms from us, too. Bokashi is another process that uses bacteria to break down organic matter in a small bin. We sell beginner bokashi kits at our EcoStore.

How can you get started? We have some great online guides for the beginner, intermediate and expert composter. Happy Compost Week #yyc!