Week to Highlight Environmental Benefits of Community Composting

The Centre for Organic & Resource Enterprises (CORE), with the support of Compost Australia, announces that the fifth International Composting Awareness Week 2010 (ICAW) will be held throughout Australia from Sunday 2nd to Saturday 8th May to promote the importance of this valuable organic resource and the environmental benefits composting affords our communities.

The Centre for Organic & Resource Enterprises (CORE) with the support of Compost Australia (a

division of the Waste Management Association of Australia) has launched the fifth International

Composting Awareness Week 2010(ICAW) throughout Australia.

ICAW is being held from Sunday 2nd to Saturday 8th May with a week of activities and events to

promote the awareness of the importance of this valuable organic resource and the

environmental benefits composting affords our communities.

The major objectives of ICAW

ICAW aims to:

· Increase the diversion of organics from the main waste stream through increasing awareness

of, and participation in centralised composting, kerbside, home composting & community

composting

· Increase awareness of, and participation in, the proper use of “soil-improving composts”

· Help reduce and recover food waste

· Highlight the environmental and social benefits of composting including the opportunities to

reduce our carbon emissions

Composting benefits Australian communities

“Each year over half of our household garbage, is made up of food and garden organics. Most of this

material can be recycled by composting it”, says Eric Love Chairman of CORE.

“Composting is not new. Compost has been used in crop production for over 4000 years. Artificial

fertilizers only became widely available a century ago. Australia is an old and eroded continent,

that is suffering from land degradation”.

“As organic waste decomposes in landfill it produces the greenhouse gases, methane and carbon

dioxide. These greenhouse gases contribute to worldwide climate change. Most landfill gas is made up of 54% methane and 40% carbon dioxide. Methane is twenty four times more damaging as a

greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.”

Eric continues that “ironically, if all this organic material was diverted from landfills and properly

composted, it could be used to reverse the affects of climate change. By applying this compost to

gardens, farms and other land uses, millions of tonnes of carbon will be stored in the soil. This acts to

lower the atmospheric temperatures that lead to changes in our climate.”

“Indeed compost produced by the recycled organics industry is already providing Australian landscape, horticulture and agricultural industries with affordable solutions to improve productivity and

environmental outcomes. Recycled carbon based products are also being effectively used to treat

contaminated stormwater runoff and enabling the water to be reused or more safely released into our

waterways”, says Mr Wadewitz.

Composting, a solution at the burning issues

Australians are the second highest waste producers in the world, second only to Americans. Australians now throw away 3.3 million tonnes of food every year – up to a quarter of the country’s food supplies.

Emissions from landfills are part of the Australian Federal Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction

Scheme (CPRS). If everyone composted, the total waste going to landfill could decrease by up to a

third. So emissions and fees from landfills will drop off.

Composting is definitively one of the most important leverages to achieve the 66% diversion rate target, an overall state target for the reduction of waste by 2014.

Finally, 2010 is the year of the bio diversity. This is the perfect time to reflect on our achievements to

safeguard biodiversity and focus on the urgency of our challenge for the future.

It is important for all Australians that International Composting Awareness Week achieves its stated

objectives. We all need to be aware of the benefits afforded to all of us when our business communities, households and agricultural sector composts.

Composting is the intelligent alternative. We can compost to help scrap carbon pollution. Composting is the responsible and sustainable thing to do for our planet.                                                                                              

Source: www.compostweek.com.au